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Vincenzo Peruggia (October 8, 1881 – October 8, 1925) was an Italian thief, most famous for stealing the ''Mona Lisa'' on 21 August 1911. Born in Dumenza, Varese, Italy, he died in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, France.〔 (Mio padre, il ladro della Gioconda )〕 ==Theft== In 1911 Vincenzo Peruggia Ellis perpetrated what has been described as the greatest art theft of the 20th century. It was a police theory that the former Louvre worker hid inside the museum on Sunday, August 20, knowing that the museum would be closed the following day. But according to Peruggia's interrogation in Florence after his arrest, 〔Extrait du Proces-Verbal de la confrontation de M. Vignolle avec Peruggia, Dec. 20. 1913, Archives Nationales, Paris〕 he entered the museum on Monday, August 21 around 7 am through the door where the other Louvre workers were entering. He said he wore one of the white worker's mocks that museum employees customarily wore and was indistinguishable from the other workers. When the Salon Carré where the ''Mona Lisa'' hung was empty, he lifted off the painting off the four iron pegs that secured it to the wall and took it to a nearby service staircase. There he removed the protective case and frame. Some people report that he concealed the painting (which Leonardo painted on wood) under his smock. But Peruggia was only 5'3" 〔Peruggia mugshot, January 25, 1909, Archives Nationales, Paris〕and the Mona Lisa measures approx, 21 x 30 so it would not fit under a smock worn by someone like Peruggia. Instead, he said that he took off his smock and wrapped it around the painting, tucked it under his arm and left the Louvre through the same door he entered. 〔Mona Lisa Is Missing, 2013, Virgil Films, dir. Joe Medeiros〕 Vincenzo hid the painting in his apartment in Paris. Supposedly, when police arrived to search his apartment and question him, they accepted his alibi that he had been working at a different location on the day of the theft. After keeping the painting hidden in a trunk in his apartment for two years, Peruggia returned to Italy with it. He kept it in his apartment in Florence but grew impatient and was finally caught when he contacted Alfredo Geri, the owner of an art gallery in Florence, Italy. Geri's story conflicts with Peruggia's, but it was clear that Peruggia expected a reward for returning the painting to what he regarded as its "homeland." Geri called in Giovanni Poggi, director of the Uffizi Gallery, who authenticated the painting. Poggi and Geri, after taking the painting for "safekeeping," informed the police, who arrested Peruggia at his hotel.〔 After its theft, the painting was exhibited all over Italy with banner headlines rejoicing its return and then returned to the Louvre in 1913. Peruggia was released from jail after a short time and served in the Italian army during World War I. He later married and had one daughter Celestina. He returned to France and continued to work as a painter decorator using his birth name Pietro Peruggia.〔 He died on October 8, 1925 (his 44th birthday) in the town of Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, France. His death was not widely reported on by the media, with obituaries appearing mistakenly only when another Vincenzo Peruggia died in Haute-Savoie in 1947.〔(Who stole the Mona Lisa? ), FT.com, August 2011〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Vincenzo Peruggia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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