The Theft That Made the Mona Lisa Famous

July 7, 2026

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5 min read

The Theft That Made the Mona Lisa Famous

The Mona Lisa is a small painting—just 77 by 53 centimeters, painted on a poplar wood panel rather than canvas. It shows a seated woman from the waist up, hands folded, turned slightly toward the viewer, with an imaginary atmospheric landscape of winding paths and distant mountains behind her. Leonardo da Vinci began it around 1503 and continued working on it for years. The woman is usually identified as Lisa Gherardini, wife of Florentine merchant Francesco del Giocondo—hence her Italian name La Gioconda. "Mona" is short for Madonna, meaning "my lady," so the title literally means "My Lady Lisa." Despite popular belief that the sitter is unknown, historian Dominic Selwit notes that "it's actually in the name in many languages."

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What you'll learn

1 The Theft That Made the Mona Lisa Famous
2 (01:44) **The Most Famous Painting Wasn't Always Famous** - The episode opens by establishing that the Mona Lisa's global fame is not due to Leonardo da Vinci alone, but to a specific theft in 1911 that transformed its cultural status forever.
3 (02:19) **Vincent Perugia: The Unlikely PR Agent** - Historian Dominic Selwit joins to explain how a single thief changed the painting's trajectory through a media frenzy.
4 (05:58) **Conspiracy Theories and Hidden Secrets** - The episode addresses why the Mona Lisa attracts so many speculative theories about hidden meanings.
5 (06:49) **The Painting's Journey to France** - The Mona Lisa's path from Leonardo's studio to the Louvre is traced.
6 (07:44) **Vincent Perugia: The Inside Man** - The thief's background and unique advantage are revealed.
7 (08:21) **The Theft: Monday, August 21, 1911** - The step-by-step execution of the heist is described.

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Show Notes

In this episode of Forbidden History, Dominic Selwood joins us as we explore the truth behind the heist that changed the art world forever, and transformed the Mona Lisa into a global phenomenon.

PATREON LINK HERE: https://patreon.com/ForbiddenHistory?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink

Cast List:

Eric Meyers: Narrator

Dominic Selwood: Journalist & Historian

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