The actual thief was discovered, but was there a mysterious mastermind? Was the journalist -- not exactly a stand-up guy -- telling the truth? Really interesting and fun reading. ( )

Easy read, an interesting story. ( )

Excellent! I enjoy this author's writing style. It's written as documentary, entirely factual, and it doesn't read like a novel inasmuch as inconsequential details are added for such, but it's a compelling read because she tells the events so as to stimulate interest. I read it in one day. Will look for more from this author. ( )

This is the story of the theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911. It's an interesting series of events, but you can get all the information about it you need from the wikipedia article, which I strongly suggest because the quality of writing in this book is abysmal. The author cannot resist adding flowery, melodramatic, and frequently nonsensical descriptions that practically writhe off the page. The whole thing calls to mind a ninth grader desperately trying to pad an essay.

Here's an example:
"Night like liquid velvet settled over the mansard roofs, innocent, if a night is ever innocent. A night is young but never innocent, and as Sunday merged with Monday and the city awakened to a new day, the game that would stun Paris and astound the world was afoot."

So wait, is the night innocent or not? Because I think that's really key to the crime here.

Grade: D
Recommended: No, it's very tiresome. ( )

Early on the morning of Tuesday, August 22 in the year 1911, a Parisian painter wishing to use La Joconde…better known to the English-speaking world as The Mona Lisa…as a reference for a painting of his own discovered that she was not smiling down from her accustomed place. The guard he asked about the painting’s whereabouts offhandedly assumed it was being photographed for posterity. When, several hours later, the painting had not yet been returned and the museum photographers denied having worked upon it that morning, the scandalous truth was made clear—La Joconde, the most famous of all Leonardo daVinci’s paintings and one of the most famous paintings in the world, had been stolen.

The theft proved an international scandal, exposing huge holes in the security of the Louvre…paintings were not secured to the wall and did not need to be accounted for in any way when moved, and the guards were inept and careless, often dozing at their posts. The international attention on the case only put more pressure on the police and detectives pursuing a trail that was already almost a day old before it was discovered. Multiple theories of the crime were considered, from a love-sick admirer of the painting to an unscrupulous American art collector. Even Pablo Picasso and Guillaume Apollinaire, thought to have connections to a ring of art thieves, fell under suspicion during the two years the painting was missing. Even once the painting was eventually found in the possession of a misguidedly patriotic young Italian, questions and mysteries remained.

R.A. Scotti’s account of the crime and the two-year quest to bring the painting home is compulsively readable, drawing a vivid picture of Paris and the world at the end of the Belle Epoque. ( )