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What happened to the Mona Lisa after it was recovered from Vincenzo Peruggia?
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Mona Lisa
Mona Lisa, oil on wood panel by Leonardo da Vinci, 1503β19; in the Louvre, Paris.
After the Mona Lisa was recovered from Vincenzo Peruggia in 1913, the painting was taken on a tour of Italy before it made a triumphant return to France.1
Following its return to the Louvre Museum, the painting has remained a centerpiece of the collection, though it has been moved on several occasions:
- World War II: The painting was evacuated to various locations in the French countryside for protection and returned to the museum in 1945.1
- International Tours: In 1963, it traveled to the United States for a six-week exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Art, and it later toured to Tokyo and Moscow in 1974.1
Today, the Mona Lisa is permanently housed at the Louvre, where it is protected by bulletproof glass, a measure implemented following vandalism in 1956.23