The Missing Piece: Vincenzo Peruggia and the Unthinkable Theft of the Mona Lisa
This is the blog from Joe Medeiros, the writer/director of The Missing Piece, an upcoming documentary about Vincenzo Peruggia, the man who stole the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911. http://www.monalisamissing.com
There isn't time enough in a day to make and market a film and to update all possible social media. so we're suspending the blog for right now. But you can get daily updates about the Man Who Stole the Mona Lisa on Facebook and Twitter.
I had the good fortune to do an interview with Doug Fabrizio of the NPR station KUER in Salt Lake City. Doug's a great interviewer and we had a good time examining the detail's of Peruggia's incredible crime. Take a listen.
Many people say that someone other than Vincenzo Peruggia stole the Mona Lisa from the Louvre. That it was really an elaborate conspiracy to sell forgeries of the painting. This clip from our documentary The Missing Piece shows why that story is simply not true.
It's the greatest little-known art theft of all time. With the most unlikely thief. And no one knows why he really did it. Until now. 100 years after the theft of the Mona Lisa, writer/director Joe Medeiros finds the real reason Vincenzo Peruggia stole the Mona Lisa from the Louvre -- a reason Peruggia's only daughter didn't even know.
It's with great sadness that I tell you that Celestina Peruggia passed away on Thursday, March 10 2011 in Italy. From the moment I met her in May 2008, I felt like she was the grandmother I always wanted. She was so kind and sweet and shared with us everything she knew about her father so that we could tell his story in our film.
She had suffered in the last few years from heart problems. Last year, she lost her husband Amleto, her companion of more than 60 years.
Although we had spoken to Celestina on several occasions, the last time we saw her was in October 2008 when we shared with her what we found out about her father Vincenzo.
At that time, she said that she was happy with what we found and was closing the story of the Gioconda and would not do any more interviews.
I feel tremendously lucky and honored not only to have known this fine woman, her husband Amleto, daughter Graziella and son Silvio but to be able to tell the story of her father in an honest, factual and human way.
If the man who stole the Mona Lisa was anything like his daughter Celestina, I would have been happy to have known him.
I've been seeing this woman's face every day for the last 3 years as I've worked on the film. It's like losing a family member. I hope that she's with her husband Amleto, her mother Annunciata, her second father Ernesto and her "vero papa" Vincenzo.
I hope our film, "The Missing Piece" is a fitting tribute to them all.
This is the latest book by Ed Dolnick, a terrific author we interviewed for our film. We talked to him about one of his previous books about art theft -- The Rescue Artist about Charley Hill, the Scotland Yard detective who recovered Munch's The Scream. Ed's books are available on Amazon. And remember, if you shop Amazon through our websitehttp://www.monalisamissing.com/The_Missing_Piece/THE_STORE.html 4% of the purchase price goes toward funding our film!
