WE'LL BE RIGHT BACK WITH OUR BLOG AFTER THIS COMMERCIAL MESSAGE...

After the theft in 1911 and her return in 1913, the Mona Lisa became so familiar to the average person that merchants began to capitalize on this by putting her face in their ads and on their products.  She became a worldwide celebrity pitch woman for a variety of products --  from cake to chocolate to phonograph needles. Whether she ever did an ad for a feminine hygiene product remains to be seen. (Images courtesy of Eileen White, the Louvre archives and my own personal collection)

For Italian mineral water

For chocolate

For cake

For a pharmacy. This one says that if you cut out the shape, the shadow from it will create the image of the Mona Lisa

Phonograph needles

This was the hotel in Florence where Peruggia was arrested in December 1913.  Originally, it was called the Hotel Tripoli-Italia. But there was such notoriety after the return of the painting, that the owner changed it to the Hotel Gioconda, a name it still has today.  In fact, you can stay in Peruggia's room -- which we did.  But that's a subject of another blog.