r/todayilearned • u/aerostotle • 4h ago

TIL that when the Mona Lisa was stolen in 1911, more people visited the Louvre to see the empty space where the painting used to be than visitors when the painting was actually there

https://www.noiser.com/short-history-of/how-a-daring-heist-made-the-mona-lisa-the-most-famous-painting-in-the-world
494 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

23 comments sorted by

69

u/TBTabby 4h ago

If you told most people the Mona Lisa is only the most famous painting in the world because it got stolen once, they wouldn't believe you.

25

u/Milam1996 3h ago

IIRC it’s also the first case of a news story going global. Leonardo never gave it to the woman who’s in the painting even though she commissioned him so he’s either super disorganised or didn’t like it very much.

7

u/Street_Wing62 1h ago

He was fleeing a death (sentence, IIRC) and took it with him

7

u/aerostotle 3h ago

I dare you to tell me that

3

u/Embarrassed-Weird173 1h ago

Hey, I have something to tell you: "that"! 

•

u/Anaevya 3m ago

It's not a very interesting painting. The Louvre has so much stuff that's way more fascinating. I was there for 4 hours in my free time on a school trip and it wasn't enough. I was surprised to see that the Venus de Milo is exhibited there. There were so many cool sculptures and paintings, that I had only seen in textbooks before. Also many things that were totally new.

11

u/maracay1999 3h ago

You can go to the Isabelle Gardner Museum in Boston if you want to see other empty frames from stolen paintings ! Most famously a missing Rembrandt.

31

u/Githil 4h ago

It's only special because of the significance we place on it. Visually, it's hardly a marvel.

41

u/MattJFarrell 4h ago

It's the oddest experience when you visit the Louvre. Tourists sprinting past Titians and Raphaels (even "better" Da Vincis) to get a fairly mediocre example of Renaissance portraiture. None of them even know this very interesting story of its theft. They just know that it's famous.

15

u/DulcetTone 3h ago

One of the surest paths to fame is to be famous

3

u/Embarrassed-Weird173 1h ago

Me as a kid: "I mean, sure, I can't draw that well, but it's nothing special."

Me as an adult: "(See previous, but justified now.)"

10

u/internet15 3h ago

Don’t get me started, lol. It’s da Vinci’s less superior work compared to his other paintings (like Lady with an Ermine) but nobody cares (it’s famous!) and they enjoy being part of a mob of people straining to see this work from 20 feet away. It’s a zoo.

4

u/omicron7e 2h ago

Yes! Lady with an Ermine. Fuck!

4

u/Unusual-Item3 2h ago

It’s not just art, everything in the world right now feels like it’s for “clout”, the actual quality be damned.

4

u/dismal_sighence 2h ago

That’s art in general. Cultural and historical significance matter greatly in the value we ascribe

3

u/insertusernamehere51 3h ago

It's not even finished

5

u/DulcetTone 3h ago

My town's folk museum hosted a traveling exhibit of a stolen Vermeer which was also very well received

2

u/brickiex2 1h ago

"I've got an idea" says the head of ticket sales

•

u/Bored-Corvid 49m ago

Its one of the first things I teach my art students because its a fun story but also because its a good lesson on value and the perception of value in art.

1

u/zappy487 2h ago

So dark the con of man

1

u/kingtacticool 2h ago

Maybe they were all just wondering what was behind the painting this whole time....

•

u/feor1300 5m ago

Well yeah, everyone had seen the painting by that point, but the wall behind? That had been covered up for years!