The Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa was exhibited in the Uffizi Gallery

The Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa was exhibited in the  Uffizi Gallery from 1913 to 1914.

The Morning of August 21, 1911, a certain Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian who worked in the Louvre, made the heist of the century: he entered easily in the museum (thanks to the heavy sleep of a custodian), and once in front of the picture, he did not hesitate as he pulled it from the wall, he hid it under his jacket and left breathlessly. Peruggia stole the painting convinced that the painting had been stolen during the French invasion of Italy centuries past, oblivious to the fact that Francis I of France had fairly bought the painting by Leonardo da Vinci.

For two years, Peruggia kept the work with him, then sent a letter to the Florentine antique dealer Alfredo Geri proposing the sale of the painting by Leonardo, to be agreed during a meeting, signing as «Vincent Leonard». Geri called Giovanni Poggi, director of the Uffizi Gallery for the appraisal. The latter confirmed the originality of the painting and turned to the police, who arrested Peruggia and thus recovered the Mona Lisa. Peruggia was convicted in June of 1913 in Florence, one year and 15 days imprisonment, which he served in full; Poggi instead asked, and obtained, considering the excellent relations between Italy and France, to be able to exhibit the painting in the Uffizi until January 1914, along with two other masterpieces of the artist from Vinci: The Annunciation and the Adoration of the Magi.

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