Vanished Smile: The Mysterious Theft of the Mona Lisa
On August 21, 1911, Leonardo da Vinci’s most celebrated painting vanished from the Louvre. The prime suspects were as shocking as the crime: Pablo Picasso and Guillaume Apollinaire, young provocateurs of a new art. The sensational disappearing act captured the world’s imagination. Crowds stood...
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On August 21, 1911, Leonardo da Vinci’s most celebrated painting vanished from the Louvre. The prime suspects were as shocking as the crime: Pablo Picasso and Guillaume Apollinaire, young provocateurs of a new art. The sensational disappearing act captured the world’s imagination. Crowds stood in line to view the empty space on the museum wall. Thousands more waited, as concerned as if Mona Lisa were a missing person, for news of the lost painting. Almost a century later, questions still linger: Who really pinched Mona Lisa, and why? Part love story, part mystery, Vanished Smile reopens the puzzling case that transformed a Renaissance portrait into the most enduring icon of all time.
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Format: paperback
ISBN:
9780307278388 (0307278387)
ASIN: 307278387
Publish date: April 6th 2010
Publisher: Vintage
Pages no: 256
Edition language: English
Category:
Non Fiction,
History,
Literature,
Cultural,
Book Club,
20th Century,
Mystery,
Art,
Crime,
True Crime,
France,
Art History
This was a very informational and fun read. I never even knew the Mona Lisa was stolen in 1911, but now I do. This book presents accurate information in an interesting way. It was only about 220 pages, so the author could have gone into more detail, and she kept referring to Mona Lisa as "she", but ...
I actually listened to the audiobook version of this one, which made me want to read the print version. The reader was talented but seemed enamored of her ability to pronounce all the French and foreign words and names and that got in the way for me. Also, it is content rich and hard to digest when ...