The Price of Fame

Perspectives from The Artist's Road

Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci

There was a time, believe it or not, when the Mona Lisa wasn’t that well known outside of artists’ circles. What brought it to international attention and greatly escalated its fame was its theft from the Louvre in 1911.

It was artist, Louis Béroud, having come to the museum to sketch the painting, who first noticed it missing. Following Béroud’s discovery, the museum was closed for an entire week, while an investigation was begun. The French press used the opportunity to berate the government (which was in charge of managing the Louvre) by running sensational headlines about the ineptitude which allowed the theft. The New York Times spread the news writing, “Sixty detectives seek stolen Mona Lisa, French public indignant”. The Mona Lisa became a household name.

In an interesting example of “shoot first and ask questions later”, police arrested poet and artist, Guillaume Apollinaire and put his friend, Pablo Picasso…