On January 4, 1914, Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa resumed its place in the Louvre's Salon Carre after its 1911 theft by former Louvre worker Vincenzo Peruggia. The painting had been hidden for more than two years and was recovered only after Peruggia tried to sell it in Florence to dealer Alfredo Geri and Uffizi director Giovanni Poggi. Before going back to Paris it was exhibited in Italy, turning the recovery into an international public spectacle. The return mattered not only as the resolution of a famous art crime but as a turning point in the painting's modern celebrity: press coverage, police drama, and crowds transformed an already admired Renaissance portrait into a global icon of museum culture.
The theft and return helped make the Mona Lisa the world's best-known painting.
![Ginevra de' Benci [obverse], by Leonardo da Vinci](https://artifactworldgallery.com/img/ginevra-de-benci-obverse--afb6ec3a3e65f392-w320.webp)
![Wreath of Laurel, Palm, and Juniper with a Scroll inscribed Virtutem Forma Decorat [reverse], by Leonardo da Vinci](https://artifactworldgallery.com/img/wreath-of-laurel-palm-and-juniper-with-a-scroll-inscribed-vi--4cdfe8467ad2438a-w320.webp)
