
Who stole the Mona Lisa? - KeepTalking
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/069d8662-be37-11e0-bee9-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1UIyEY27f
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wallflower
If you liked this heist story, these are two of my all-time favorite HN
stories:

"Art of the Steal: On the Trail of World’s Most Ingenious Thief"

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1215138>

"The Silver Thief"

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1020547>

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palish
SPOILER ALERT: The first link's top comment reads "You have to give the guy
credit for <foo and bar and baz>", ruining the story. :/

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wallflower
Spoiler-free links (Thanks, palish):

[http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/03/ff_masterthief_blancha...](http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/03/ff_masterthief_blanchard)

<http://stephenjdubner.com/journalism/silverthief.html>

Speaking of spoilers, suspend your sense of physics and go see "Another
Earth", fascinating if you forget about the plot blackholes

( <http://www.foxsearchlight.com/anotherearth/> )

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InclinedPlane
This is actually an interesting entire family of crimes. Steal a unique,
highly valuable item, sell fake copies for full-price now that it's plausible
to be the real thing (especially if you set up a sale before the actual theft
takes place), then return the original if you care enough. Nobody will turn
you in because they'd be admitting to attempting to buy stolen goods.

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ertdfgcb
This could be really dangerous if you aren't careful who you sell to.

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wahnfrieden
It worked brilliantly in this case since they did their business in the US,
overseas from where it was stolen.

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necubi
According to the article, this scheme was probably just a fabrication by a
journalist who wanted a juicy story:

"Here at last was a criminal brain worthy of the Mona Lisa. The only problem
is that Decker almost certainly invented him. There is no external evidence
for Decker’s story, nor even for the Marques’ existence. A century later, none
of the six supposed copies has surfaced. Most likely, Vincenzo Peruggia stole
the Mona Lisa single-handed, largely because she was small."

(Also, this is somewhat off-topic, but the typography and layout on ft.com are
really superb. This is one of the few websites that doesn't make me
immediately turn to readability.)

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meattle
If you're interested in learning more about the painting, I created an entire
mini website about the Mona Lisa a few years ago:

<http://hepguru.com/monalisa/>

It was featured by USA Today, etc. You may like it.

~~~
rsiqueira
One of the best versions of Mona Lisa is the one engraved by Sanchez-Toda
(Spanish bank note and postal stamp designer):
<http://rsiqueira.postbit.com/mona-lisa>

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mkopinsky
Well-written, interesting article. Worth clicking through and reading.

~~~
rman666
+1

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nodata
I like the article, but why is it in the FT? This is more something that suits
sister-pulication The Economist.

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dagw
FT Weekend and FT Magazine do these sorts of stories all the time. People who
spend their weekdays worrying about finance want to relax on the weekend and
read fun and interesting stories.

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muriithi
"The far-right Action Française newspaper blamed the Jews"

Looks like prejudice is as old as humanity itself!

~~~
corin_
Wow that's a terrible comment - I won't even point out the difference between
100 years old and the age of humanity.

But any basic knowledge of history should tell you that anti-semitic feelings
in Europe were building up in the 19th century. For example Hitler was a huge
fan of Richard Wagner (who died 28 years before this 1911 theft), who wrote a
famous article, first published anonymously then later republished in his own
name, called "Das Judenthum in der Musik", blasting Jewish composers such as
Mendlesohn.

