It seems that Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa was among the paintings found in the Altaussee salt mine in the Austrian alps, which was converted by the Nazis into their secret stolen … Among the many enduring mysteries of this periodis the fate of the world's most famous painting.

The Louvre staff, students from the École du Louvre, and workers from the Grands Magasins du Louvre department store took paintings out of their frames (when possible) and moved statues and other objects from their displays into wooden crates. After Germany annexed Austria in March of 1938, Jaujard, then deputy director of the National Museums, lost whatever small hope he had that war might be avoided. The Mona Lisa has been passed from one owner to another throughout the years, but it has only ever been stolen once. A curator sat next to it in a state of cat-like readiness for the entire trip, and later reported the lack of air circulation almost suffocated him. In November of 1939, the Mona Lisa was transported from Chambord to the château of Louvigny, the northernmost art depot where the large-format paintings were stored, to keep it out of reach of the advancing German army. The most famous theft of works of art in history, when the most famous painting in the world was stolen – Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, took place on August 21, 1911. For example, the Mona Lisa was moved from Chambord to several castles and abbeys, to finish at the end of the war at the Musée Ingres in Montauban. Image credit: AFP/Getty Images.
See our, Read a limited number of articles each month, You consent to the use of cookies and tracking by us and third parties to provide you with personalized ads, Unlimited access to washingtonpost.com on any device, Unlimited access to all Washington Post apps, No on-site advertising or third-party ad tracking. On August 21, 1911, Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, today one of the most famous paintings in the world, was stolen right off the wall of the Louvre.It was such an inconceivable crime, that the Mona Lisa wasn't even noticed missing until the following day. This content is currently not available in your region. The painting's novel qualities include the subject's expression, which is frequently described as enigmatic, the monumentality of the composition, the subtle modelling of forms, and the atmospheric illusionism. A report of the Operation Ebensburg stated that four Austrian double-agents managed to save some of the famous works hidden in the mine and that among those objects was the Louvre’s Mona Lisa. By clicking “I agree” below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. Available for everyone, funded by readers, Family of Fritz Salo Glaser, who escaped deportation during Dresden bombing, had feared artworks were destroyed, Vase of Flowers by Jan van Huysum was stolen by Nazis during second world war, Forty-two institutions have identified items that were taken from Jewish families, Almost 600 works of art discovered in Munich apartment of Cornelius Gurlitt may have been stolen by Nazis. Over a century ago, Vincenzo Peruggia, an amateur Italian painter became responsible for the most famous act of theft. The Louvre was extensively renovated between 1945 and 1946, its galleries opened piecemeal as they were completed. The Mona Lisa returned on June 16, 1945.

Whether it may have been at Altaussee was a question only raised when scholars examined the postwar Special Operations Executive report on the activities of Austrian double agents working for the allies to secure the mine. The Mona Lisa would certainly have been a key target for Nazi art hunters: the ERR, Hitler himself, and the art fiend and Nazi number two, Hermann Göring. The Nazis would have sought the Mona Lisa without rest, demanding it be handed to them upon their entry to Paris, and hunting it down if it were not. A fortified abbey in the south of France seemed like a solid choice to protect the Mona Lisa and other masterpieces, but within months, conservators became concerned that the humid environment would damage the paintings. During the investigation, both the head of the Louvre museum and the head of the Paris police were dismissed from their jobs, the CNN Edition: International reports. Per Betteridge’s law of headlines, the answer to this is “no”, but it’s still an interesting yarn. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. So where was it during the war? The ERR would then chase what they believed to be the original Mona Lisa, in the crate marked as such, and upon capturing it, send it to Altaussee for storage. Mona Lisa or La Gioconda, is arguably “the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world” and the half-length portrait of Lisa Gherardini, done by the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci, also comes with a rich history of casualties. But after years refusing to comment, it finally admitted that the Mona Lisa had indeed been in the Altaussee mine. 100 years ago the small portrait was stolen from the Louvre, catapulting it to international stardom.

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