THE MONA LISA IS STOLEN FROM THE LOUVRE IN 1911

The Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci

Today, The Grandma has received the wonderful visit of one of her closest friends, Tina Picotes.

Tina is a painter and she loves Art. They have been talking about one of the most interesting facts that happened on a day like today in 1911 when Vincenzo Peruggia stole the Mona Lisa from the Louvre Museum in Paris.

The Mona Lisa is a half-length portrait painting by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. It is considered an archetypal masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, and has been described as the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world.

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.

The painting is likely of the Italian noblewoman Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo, and is in oil on a white Lombardy poplar panel. It had been believed to have been painted between 1503 and 1506; however, Leonardo may have continued working on it as late as 1517.

Recent academic work suggests that it would not have been started before 1513. It was acquired by King Francis I of France and is now the property of the French Republic itself, on permanent display at the Louvre Museum in Paris since 1797.

The Mona Lisa is one of the most valuable paintings in the world. It holds the Guinness World Record for the highest known insurance valuation in history at US$100 million in 1962, equivalent to $650 million in 2020.

More information: CNN

Vincenzo Peruggia (8 October 1881-8 October 1925) was an Italian museum worker, artist, and thief, most famous for stealing the Mona Lisa on 21 August 1911.

In 1911, Peruggia perpetrated what has been described as the greatest art theft of the 20th century. It was a police theory that the former Louvre worker hid inside the museum on Sunday, 20 August, knowing the museum would be closed the following day. But, according to Peruggia's interrogation in Florence after his arrest, he entered the museum on Monday, 21 August around 7 am, through the door where the other Louvre workers were entering. He said he wore one of the white smocks that museum employees customarily wore and was indistinguishable from the other workers.

Vincenzo Peruggia

When the Salon Carré, where the Mona Lisa hung, was empty, he lifted the painting off the four iron pegs that secured it to the wall and took it to a nearby service staircase. There, he removed the protective case and frame.

Some people report that he concealed the painting, which Leonardo painted on wood, under his smock. But Peruggia was only 160 centimetres tall, and the Mona Lisa measures approx. 53 cm × 77 cm, so it would not fit under a smock worn by someone his size. 

Instead, he said he took off his smock and wrapped it around the painting, tucked it under his arm, and left the Louvre through the same door he had entered.

After keeping the painting hidden in a trunk in his apartment for two years, Peruggia returned to Italy with it. He kept it in his apartment in Florence, Italy for some time. However, Peruggia eventually grew impatient, and was finally caught when he contacted Alfredo Geri, the owner of an art gallery in Florence.

Geri's story conflicts with Peruggia's, but it was clear that Peruggia expected a reward for returning the painting to what he regarded as its homeland. Geri called in Giovanni Poggi, director of the Uffizi Gallery, who authenticated the painting. Poggi and Geri, after taking the painting for safekeeping, informed the police, who arrested Peruggia at his hotel.

After its recovery, the painting was exhibited all over Italy with banner headlines rejoicing its return. The Mona Lisa was then returned to the Louvre in 1913. While the painting was famous before the theft, the notoriety it received from the newspaper headlines and the large scale police investigation helped the artwork become one of the best known in the world.

More information: NPR

There are currently two predominant theories regarding the theft of the Mona Lisa.

Peruggia said he did it for a patriotic reason: he wanted to bring the painting back for display in Italy after it was stolen by Napoleon.

Although perhaps sincere in his motive, Vincenzo may not have known that Leonardo da Vinci took this painting as a gift for Francis I when he moved to France to become a painter in his court during the 16th century, 250 years before Napoleon's birth.

The Louvre, 1911 and 2020

Experts have questioned the patriotism motive on the grounds that -if patriotism was the true motive- Peruggia would have donated the painting to an Italian museum, rather than have attempted to profit from its sale.

The question of money is also confirmed by letters that Peruggia sent to his father after the theft.

On 22 December 1911, four months after the theft, he wrote that Paris was where I will make my fortune and that his (fortune) will arrive in one shot.

The following year (1912), he wrote: I am making a vow for you to live long and enjoy the prize that your son is about to realize for you and for all our family.

Put on trial, the court agreed, to some extent, that Peruggia committed his crime for patriotic reasons and gave him a lenient sentence. He was sent to jail for one year and 15 days, but was hailed as a great patriot in Italy and served only seven months in jail.

Another theory emerged later. The theft may have been encouraged or masterminded by Eduardo de Valfierno, a con-man who had commissioned the French art forger Yves Chaudron to make copies of the painting so he could sell them as the missing original. The copies would have gone up in value if the original were stolen.

More information: Solo Sophie

This theory is based entirely on a 1932 article by former Hearst journalist Karl Decker in The Saturday Evening Post. Decker claimed to have known Valfierno and heard the story from him in 1913, promising not to print it until he learned of Valfierno's death. There is no external confirmation for this tale.

Peruggia was released from jail after a short time and served in the Italian army during World War I.

He later married, had one daughter, Celestina, returned to France, and continued to work as a painter decorator using his birth name Pietro Peruggia.

He died on 8 October 1925 (his 44th birthday) in the town of Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, France. His death was not widely reported by the media; obituaries appeared mistakenly only when another Vincenzo Peruggia died in Haute-Savoie in 1947.

More information: The Vintage News

Mona Lisa is the only beauty

who went through history

and retained her reputation.

Will Rogers

LE JARDIN DU LUXEMBOURG AND STENDHAL SYNDROME

Paqui Jones in Le Jardin du Luxembourg

Today, The Jones have decided to visit Le Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris. The Grandma is under the effect of the Stendhal syndrome after her visit to The Louvre Museum and she has started to live in a parallel world where only art exists. 

The family has decided to take a free day in these wonderful gardens and read some of the books that they have bought to celebrate next Saint George's Day, especially Stendhal's Red and Black and Honoré de Balzac's Cousin Bette the best writers from the French Realism, something that The Grandma needs urgently to return to her real life. 

Stendhal's syndrome, hyperkulturemia, or Florence syndrome is a psychosomatic disorder that causes rapid heartbeat, dizziness, fainting, confusion and even hallucinations when an individual is exposed to an experience of great personal significance, particularly viewing art. It is not listed as a recognised condition in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. 

The illness is named after the 19th-century French author Stendhal, who described his experience with the phenomenon during his 1817 visit to Florence in his book Naples and Florence: A Journey from Milan to Reggio.

The Jones are visiting Le Jardin du Luxembourg

The Jardin du Luxembourg, also known in English as the Luxembourg Gardens, is located in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. It was created beginning in 1612 by Marie de' Medici, the widow of King Henry IV of France, for a new residence she constructed, the Luxembourg Palace. 

The garden today is owned by the French Senate, which meets in the Palace. It covers 23 hectares and is known for its lawns, tree-lined promenades, flowerbeds, model sailboats on its circular basin, and picturesque Medici Fountain, built in 1620.

The garden is largely devoted to a green parterre of gravel and lawn populated with statues and centred on a large octagonal basin of water, with a central jet of water; in it children sail model boats. The garden is famed for its calm atmosphere. Surrounding the bassin on the raised balustraded terraces are a series of statues of former French queens, saints and copies after the Antique. In the southwest corner, there is an orchard of apple and pear trees and the théâtre des marionnettes, the puppet theatre. 

More information: Lonely Planet

The Jones are resting in the Jardin du Luxembourg and reading some plays from two of the best French writers of the Realism: Stendhal and Honoré de Balzac.

On the one hand, Marie-Henri Beyle (1783-1842), better known by his pen name Stendhal was a 19th-century French writer. Best known for the novels Le Rouge et le Noir, 1830 and La Chartreuse de Parme, 1839, he is highly regarded for the acute analysis of his characters' psychology and considered one of the earliest and foremost practitioners of realism.

Marie-Henri Beyle aka Stendhal

Born in Grenoble, Isère, he was an unhappy child, disliking his unimaginative father and mourning his mother, whom he passionately loved, and who died when he was seven. He spent the happiest years of his life at the Beyle country house in Claix near Grenoble. His closest friend was his younger sister, Pauline, with whom he maintained a steady correspondence throughout the first decade of the 19th century.

The military and theatrical worlds of the First French Empire were a revelation to Beyle. He was named an auditor with the Conseil d'État on 3 August 1810, and thereafter took part in the French administration and in the Napoleonic wars in Italy. He travelled extensively in Germany and was part of Napoleon's army in the 1812 invasion of Russia.

Stendhal witnessed the burning of Moscow from just outside the city. Stendhal was appointed Commissioner of War Supplies and sent to Smolensk to prepare provisions for the returning army. He crossed the Berezina River by finding a usable ford rather than the overwhelmed pontoon bridge, which probably saved his life and those of his companions.  

More information: Academy Publication

Stendhal arrived in Paris in 1813, largely unaware of the general fiasco that the retreat had become. Stendhal became known, during the Russian campaign, for keeping his wits about him, and maintaining his sang-froid and clear-headedness. He also maintained his daily routine, shaving each day during the retreat from Moscow.

Stendhal suffered miserable physical disabilities in his final years as he continued to produce some of his most famous work. Modern medicine has shown that his health problems were more attributable to his treatment than to his disease.

Download The Red and the Black by Stendhal

Watch Scarlet and Black by Stendhal: Chapters 2, 3 and 4

A novel is a mirror carried along a main road. 

Stendhal

On the other hand, Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) was a French novelist and playwright. The novel sequence La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of post-Napoleonic French life, is generally viewed as his magnum opus.

Honoré de Balzac

Owing to his keen observation of detail and unfiltered representation of society, Balzac is regarded as one of the founders of realism in European literature. 

He is renowned for his multi-faceted characters; even his lesser characters are complex, morally ambiguous and fully human. Inanimate objects are imbued with character as well; the city of Paris, a backdrop for much of his writing, takes on many human qualities. 

His writing influenced many famous writers, including the novelists Émile Zola, Charles Dickens, Gustave Flaubert, Jack Kerouac, and Henry James, filmmakers Akira Kurosawa and Eric Rohmer as well as important philosophers such as Friedrich Engels.

More information: Libres UNCG

An enthusiastic reader and independent thinker as a child, Balzac had trouble adapting to the teaching style of his grammar school. His willful nature caused trouble throughout his life and frustrated his ambitions to succeed in the world of business. When he finished school, Balzac was apprenticed in a law office, but he turned his back on the study of law after wearying of its inhumanity and banal routine. 

Before and during his career as a writer, he attempted to be a publisher, printer, businessman, critic, and politician; he failed in all of these efforts. La Comédie Humaine reflects his real-life difficulties, and includes scenes from his own experience.

Balzac suffered from health problems throughout his life, possibly due to his intense writing schedule. His relationship with his family was often strained by financial and personal drama, and he lost more than one friend over critical reviews.

Download Cousin Bette by Honoré de Balzac

In 1850, Balzac married Ewelina Hańska, a Polish aristocrat and his longtime love; he died in Paris five months later.

 Watch Cousin Bette by Honoré de Balzac: Chapters 2, 3, 4 and 5

Laws are spider webs through which the big flies pass 

and the little ones get caught. 

Honoré de Balzac

20TH OF APRIL 1990, THOUGHT I'D WRITE AND SAY HELLO

Enjoying History and Art in The Louvre Museum

Today, The Jones have visited The Louvre. They were driving from the hotel to the museum by their own van while they read two more chapters of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray.

The Grandma has prepared a funny day in one of the most beautiful and important museums of the world. 

They have travelled across the History, from Egypt to the Middle Age, the Catharism, the Jews and the Templar Knights; from the 17th century with William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes to the Contemporary Age with Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Dan Brown and the Masons with their concept of utopic cities. All stories have had a linchpin: the transmission of culture from generation to generation, expressed in the most part of these cases with the symbol of a Rose.

The family has visited every room of the museum paying a lot of attention to every explanation of the local guides and asking as questions as they have wanted.

They are preparing a great party for next April, 23, the festivity of Saint George and they have bought different books to give to the rest of the family.

The Grandma has chosen a classic one: Marcel Proust's In the search of lost time, one of the best French authors of the universal literature. It's normal. She's 94 and she is thinking about the long past and the short future. 

Today, April 20, she has been a little nostalgic remembering a beautiful letter that an old friend from Valladolid wrote her in a day like today, twenty eight years ago, a letter that she never answered...

More information: In the search of lost time by Marcel Proust

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, 
they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. 

Marcel Proust

The Louvre is the world's largest art museum and a historic monument in Paris. A central landmark of the city, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement. Approximately 38,000 objects from prehistory to the 21st century are exhibited over an area of 72,735 square metres. In 2017, the Louvre was the world's most visited art museum, receiving 8.1 million visitors.

More information: Le Louvre Museum

The Jones are seeing the Mona Lisa in The Louvre

The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace, originally built as a fortress in the late 12th to 13th century under Philip II. Remnants of the fortress are visible in the basement of the museum. 

Due to the urban expansion of the city, the fortress eventually lost its defensive function and, in 1546, was converted by Francis I into the main residence of the French Kings. The building was extended many times to form the present Louvre Palace. 

In 1682, Louis XIV chose the Palace of Versailles for his household, leaving the Louvre primarily as a place to display the royal collection, including, from 1692, a collection of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture.

 More information: Memolition

In 1692, the building was occupied by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres and the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, which in 1699 held the first of a series of salons. The Académie remained at the Louvre for 100 years. During the French Revolution, the National Assembly decreed that the Louvre should be used as a museum to display the nation's masterpieces.

The Jones are visiting the Louvre

The museum opened on 10 August 1793 with an exhibition of 537 paintings, the majority of the works being royal and confiscated church property. Because of structural problems with the building, the museum was closed in 1796 until 1801.

The collection was increased under Napoleon and the museum was renamed Musée Napoléon, but after Napoleon's abdication many works seized by his armies were returned to their original owners. The collection was further increased during the reigns of Louis XVIII and Charles X, and during the Second French Empire the museum gained 20,000 pieces. Holdings have grown steadily through donations and bequests since the Third Republic.

More information: Golden Number

The collection is divided among eight curatorial departments: Egyptian Antiquities; Near Eastern Antiquities; Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities; Islamic Art; Sculpture; Decorative Arts; Paintings; Prints and Drawings.

Claudia Jones, Owlie and The Nike of Samothrace

It has been claimed by some that the glass panes in the Louvre Pyramid number exactly 666, the number of the beast, often associated with Satan.  

Dominique Stezepfandt's book François Mitterrand, Grand Architecte de l'Univers declares that the pyramid is dedicated to a power described as the Beast in the Book of Revelation. The entire structure is based on the number 6. Elementary arithmetic allows for easy counting of the panes: each of the three sides of the pyramid without an entrance has 18 triangular panes and 17 rows of rhombic ones arranged in a triangle, thus giving 673 panes total.

More information: History

The myth resurfaced in 2003, when Dan Brown incorporated it in his best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code, in which the protagonist reflects that this pyramid, at President Mitterrand's explicit demand, had been constructed of exactly 666 panes of glass -a bizarre request that had always been a hot topic among conspiracy buffs who claimed 666 was the number of Satan. However, the French President never specified the number of panes to be used in the pyramid.

Download The Louvre Guide by The Grandma

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, 

but in having new eyes. 

Marcel Proust

RENAISSANCE & IMPRESSIONISM: THE HIDDEN MESSAGES

Visiting The Louvre and assisting to a conference

Today, The Bonds are visiting two of the most important museum of the world: The Louvre and The Orsay. They are very interested in art and painting, especially Jaume Bond, who is a professional one and enjoys painting in every place that he can.

Painting has been a method to express thousands of ideas and knowledge during the centuries. The family is very interested in two movements The Renaissance and The Impressionism because during these two ages, painting was more than simple art, was a way to express secret desires and forbidden ideas. The Grandma wants to talk about Vincent Van Gogh, his paintings and the influence of number Phi in them.

After that, the family is going to assist to a new conference about Labour Integration, Role Games and Teamwork. The EU is destinating lots of funds to improve the quality of working in all its countries, especially in these with high levels of unemployment.

More information: English Vocabulary for Employment

Finally, The Bonds are going to rest because tonight they are going to fly from Paris to Kiev where they're going to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest. There isn't any clear favourite although Pedro Bond sounds like a great candidate to win the contest but we have to wait until tomorrow when all the members of this family will defense their songs with all their heart and with their music skills.

More information: Paredro 

 Great things are done by a series of small things brought together. 

 

Vincent Van Gogh

THE COLLINS FAMILY IN THE LOUVRE GUIDED BY BELÉN

Life is pretty simple: You do some stuff. Most fails. Some works. You do more of what works. If it works big, others quickly copy it. Then you do something else. The trick is the doing something else.

Leonardo da Vinci

Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci

The Grandma, for my birthday, gave me a present, the tickets for The Louvre Museum, and I invited all the family.

The Louvre Museum is in the center of Paris, next to the Sena River. It’s the National Museum of France, an old Palace of the French king.

Welcome to The Louvre Museum! 

In the middle of the courtyard, opposite the Jardin des Tuileries, across the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, it is the famous Glass Pyramid that it is the main entrance, but it has other doors: Porte des Lions, Passage Richelieu and 99, rue de Rivoli.

We go down in elevator under the Pyramid, in the lower ground floor. There we access to three wings: to the right is Denon wing, in front of it, is Richelieu wing and to the left is Sully wing.

In this ground, we visit Spanish, Italian and Northern European Sculptures, Egyptian antiquities, History of the Louvre and the Medieval Louvre.

In ground floor, we see Italian and Northern European Sculptures, Near Eastern antiquities, Pharaonic Egypt, Greek, Etruscan and Roman antiquities. Is possible see Psyche and Cupid and the Colossal Statue of Ramesses II.

In the first floor, we visit decorative arts, Egyptian, Greek, Etruscan and Roman antiquities, Spanish and Italian paintings, prints and drawings. Here is possible to see the painting of Mona Lisa.

In the last ground, we see paintings, prints and drawings of Greece, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Russia, Switzerland and Scandinavia. You can also see The Turkish bath.

Finally, all the family decide to go to lunch to the Ritz Hotel. 

Thanks a lot, Grandma. The family loves you!

Belén Collins @Bel85gg

Mona Lisa, Mona Lisa, men have named you
You're so like the lady with the mystic smile
Is it only 'cause you're lonely they have blamed you?
For that Mona Lisa strangeness in your smile?

BONJOUR PARIS! NOUS SOMMES ICI!

Today, we’re going to do another exam for testing our English level and we’re going to visit The Louvre Museum guided by Belén. The Collins Family is in Paris enjoying about this beautiful city and recovering about Gemma’s tragic experience. The Grandma is excited about the idea of meeting with one old friend: Mona.

Oh happy day!!!

Dancing and smiling.

Oh happy day!!!

Enjoying and living.

The love is here

looking for her.

The sadness is missing

Oh happy day!!!

Eva M. & Laura (Malta & Portugal)

CREATING AN ALIBI

Keep Calm

Today, we’ve reviewed Past Continuous and Past Simple and we’ve started a new reading book about the adventures of two friends, Jake and Ros. We’ve talked about communication skills in group interviews and we’ve studied the order of words in the sentences, especially with the additions: Manner-Place-Time.

The family is sailing in the Love Boat where has happened a strange case: a robbery. An old passenger said that her jewels had disappeared and some members of our family are between the main suspects: Mari Carmen, Montse Pottery, Eva Cyprus, Adriana, Gemma and Dámaris. The Grandma is flying by helicopter to the Love Boat for avoiding any kind of arrest.

Meanwhile, some members of the family are working very hard: Eva Cyprus is designing new spaces in Downton Abbey for the family pets and Belén is preparing a great tour inside The Louvre Museum.

Tomorrow, The Collins Family will give enough explanations about of all them to seem innocent and continue the trip. The Family has a lot of work: preparing eight different songs for participating in Eurovision Song Contest, a Karen’s dream.

Roll of the dice!

Love Boat soon will be making another run
The Love Boat promises something for everyone
Set a course for adventure
Your mind on a new romance