5 ms·
Who stole the Mona Lisa?
- InclinedPlane 15y agoThis is actually an interesting entire family of crimes. Steal a unique, highly valuable item, sell fake copies for full-price now that it's plausible to be the real thing (especially if you set up a sale before the actual theft takes place), then return the original if you care enough. Nobody will turn you in because they'd be admitting to attempting to buy stolen goods.
- ertdfgcb 15y agoThis could be really dangerous if you aren't careful who you sell to.
- wahnfrieden 15y agoIt worked brilliantly in this case since they did their business in the US, overseas from where it was stolen.
- matdwyer 15y agoI imagine it is a hell of a lot more dangerous now, and the guy willing to spend millions on stolen artwork is likely the guy who could have you killed without thinking about it ;-)
- necubi 15y agoAccording to the article, this scheme was probably just a fabrication by a journalist who wanted a juicy story: "Here at last was a criminal brain worthy of the Mona Lisa. The only problem is that Decker almost certainly invented him. There is no external evidence for Decker’s story, nor even for the Marques’ existence. A century later, none of the six supposed copies has surfaced. Most likely, Vincenzo Peruggia stole the Mona Lisa single-handed, largely because she was small." (Also, this is somewhat off-topic, but the typography and layout on ft.com are really superb. This is one of the few websites that doesn't make me immediately turn to readability.)
- Create 15y agohttp://www.ted.com/talks/paul_bloom_the_origins_of_pleasure.html http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_bloom_the_origins_of_pleasure.... ...for the Han van Meegeren version of it.
- mkopinsky 15y agoWell-written, interesting article. Worth clicking through and reading.
- rman666 15y ago+1
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- wallflower 15y agoIf you liked this heist story, these are two of my all-time favorite HN stories: "Art of the Steal: On the Trail of World’s Most Ingenious Thief" http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1215138 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1215138 "The Silver Thief" http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1020547 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1020547
- heyimfromreddit 15y agoExcellent reads, thank you.
- palish 15y agoSPOILER ALERT: The first link's top comment reads "You have to give the guy credit for <foo and bar and baz>", ruining the story. :/
- wallflower 15y agoSpoiler-free links (Thanks, palish): http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/03/ff_masterthief_blanchard http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/03/ff_masterthief_blancha... http://stephenjdubner.com/journalism/silverthief.html http://stephenjdubner.com/journalism/silverthief.html Speaking of spoilers, suspend your sense of physics and go see "Another Earth", fascinating if you forget about the plot blackholes ( http://www.foxsearchlight.com/anotherearth/ http://www.foxsearchlight.com/anotherearth/ )
- mkopinsky 15y agoThanks for the warning! I read the comment as "You have to give the guy credit for <avert eyes! /> <click link/>"
- muriithi 15y ago"The far-right Action Française newspaper blamed the Jews" Looks like prejudice is as old as humanity itself!
- corin_ 15y agoWow that's a terrible comment - I won't even point out the difference between 100 years old and the age of humanity. But any basic knowledge of history should tell you that anti-semitic feelings in Europe were building up in the 19th century. For example Hitler was a huge fan of Richard Wagner (who died 28 years before this 1911 theft), who wrote a famous article, first published anonymously then later republished in his own name, called "Das Judenthum in der Musik", blasting Jewish composers such as Mendlesohn.
- nodata 15y agoI like the article, but why is it in the FT? This is more something that suits sister-pulication The Economist.
- dagw 15y agoFT Weekend and FT Magazine do these sorts of stories all the time. People who spend their weekdays worrying about finance want to relax on the weekend and read fun and interesting stories.
- ComputerGuru 15y agoNot really. It's out of place in both. Beautifully written, at any rate. Very catching and appealing!
- corin_ 15y agoThis piece is from the FT magazine, you can see the kind of content they produce for that at http://www.ft.com/magazine http://www.ft.com/magazine So, could perhaps be argued that the FT magazine is out of place, but within it this piece certainly fits just fine. And personally I rather like it, as an FT subscriber it's nice to get some bonus, often good, content even if it's not related to finance.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- meattle 15y agoIf you're interested in learning more about the painting, I created an entire mini website about the Mona Lisa a few years ago: http://hepguru.com/monalisa/ http://hepguru.com/monalisa/ It was featured by USA Today, etc. You may like it.
- rsiqueira 15y agoOne of the best versions of Mona Lisa is the one engraved by Sanchez-Toda (Spanish bank note and postal stamp designer): http://rsiqueira.postbit.com/mona-lisa http://rsiqueira.postbit.com/mona-lisa