The Mona Lisa Vanishes: A Legendary Painter, a Shocking Heist, and the Birth of a Global Celebrity
Nicholas Day, Brett Helquist (artwork)On a hot August day in Paris, just over a century ago, a desperate guard burst into the office of the director of the Louvre and shouted, La Joconde, c’est partie! The Mona Lisa, she’s gone!
No one knew who was behind the heist. Was it an international gang of thieves? Was it an art-hungry American millionaire? Was it the young Spanish painter Pablo Picasso, who was about to remake the very art of painting?
Travel back to an extraordinary period of revolutionary change: turn-of-the-century Paris. Walk its backstreets. Meet the infamous thieves—and detectives—of the era. And then slip back further in time and follow Leonardo da Vinci, painter of the Mona Lisa, through...
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This dual narrative opens in 16th century Florence, where Leonardo da Vinci begins painting the Mona Lisa, & reopens in 20th century Paris, where it is stolen from the Louvre. Droll illustrations reflect the wit & irony of Day’s compelling writing & help make this an absorbing book. — American Library Association (ALA)