It’s the most famous painting in the world. It’s seen some things, man. And some stuff.
oh crap…we lost it
It’s by a little-known artist named Leo daVinci, and if asked to name a painting at gunpoint you’d name it first.
It’s the Mona Lisa (of course), and everyone I know who has seen it in person has been wholly disappointed.
It’s small, behind glass, far away, hard to see, and not worth the wait.
But the history of the Mona Lisa is more interesting than the painting itself.
In 1956 the artwork was damaged when acid was thrown at it. A rock was also thrown in a separate incident in the same year.
In 1911 it was stolen from the Louvre but was returned two years later.
As recent as 2009, a woman threw a mug at it, which pathetically hit the bulletproof glass and fell.
So to the art heist members of the readership: stealing the Mona Lisa is like trying to burglarize a house which has already been robbed. Security’s tighter than you can ever imagine and no amount of National Treasure-ing is gonna take it.
(But then again, the guards are French. Just wait til they go on a smoke break…)