On this day in 1911, the Los Angeles Times reported that John E. Wilkie, chief of US Secret Service was due in LA for his annual call of inspection. Reports from the East indicated that he may have been in quest of the stolen Mona Lisa.
The Mona Lisa was supposed to have been brought to the US for the purposes of selling it to a well-known western patron of art.
The information in possession of the Secret Service was that the Mona Lisa was smuggled across the international boundary from Canada at a point west of the Great Lakes where the customs scrutiny was less.
The LA Times said that Wilkie had “probably canvassed the possibilities of locating the western art patron in Portland and San Francisco and is to contiune his efforts in Southern California.”
According to the rumor, the source of which is carefully concealed, the picture was taken into Canada and brought over the border, the thieves realizing that the sea coast ports of the United States were too carefully guarded to permit getting the picture in that way. They are particularly interested in a report that agents of the camorra (Mafia) have the picture and are trying to dispose ofit to a noted western art fancier.
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