CONSPIRACY THEORIES IN 1911?

The theft of the Mona Lisa was so beyond belief that many Parisians thought that there had to be another explanation. So this story started to make the rounds -  the Mona Lisa had not been stolen.  It had been damaged.

According to the rumor, the Louvre representative getting the painting for the photographer damaged it while removing it from the frame.  The theft was concocted to give the restorer time to repair the picture. 

The Louvre photographer

Two years later, the story was still going strong. In July 1913, Walter Littlefield of the New York Times published a full-page article that said the painting was destroyed by restorers working on the painting and that the story of the theft was just a cover-up.