DID YOU KNOW...
The Mona Lisa was stolen

Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting Mona Lisa was stolen in what was the biggest art heist in history. In 1911, an employee at the Louvre simply walked out with the Mona Lisa (a rather small painting at 20 7/8" x 30") hidden under his painter's smock. The employee, Vincenzo Peruggia, felt the Italian painting belonged to Italy and shouldn't be kept in France. Peruggia was encouraged to steal the painting by Eduardo de Valfierno, an Argentinian con man. 

While Peruggia himself kept the Mona Lisa, hiding it in the false bottom of a trunk, de Valfierno took advantage of the theft by hiring an art forger to make six copies of the stolen painting. He sold these copies to unscrupulous collectors who knew the painting had been stolen and believed they were getting the real thing. 

Now that's a con! The con man made what would be millions in today's currency. The Mona Lisa was not returned to the Louvre until 1913 when Peruggia attempted to sell it to a Florence art dealer.

— Compiled by Gaurav Sood