In 1911, Argentine con man Eduardo de Valfierno found a way to steal the Mona Lisa six times over at no risk to himself.
First he made private deals with six separate buyers to steal and deliver the priceless painting. Then he hired a professional art restorer to make six fakes, and shipped them in advance to the buyers’ locales (to avoid later trouble with customs).
In August he paid thief to steal the original from the Louvre.
On August 21, 1911, Vincenzo Peruggia calmly walked out of the Louvre with the painting tucked under his workman's smock. An immigrant carpenter and decorator born 1881 in Dumenza, a small town on Lake Como, Peruggia worked at the museum. Having planned the burglary, he spent Sunday night there, hiding in a storeroom. On Monday morning, the day the museum was closed, he unhooked the painting, took it out of its heavy frame, which he abandoned under a staircase and, unscrewing the knob of a locked door, let himself out of the building.
When news of the theft had spread Valfierno delivered the six fakes to their recipients, exacting a high price for each. Then he quietly disappeared. The flummoxed thief Peruggia was soon caught trying to sell the red-hot original, and it was returned to the museum in 1913.
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