The Mona Lisa Vanishes: A Legendary Painter, A Shocking Heist, and the Birth of a Global Celebrity by Nicholas Day (review)

Reviewed by: The Mona Lisa Vanishes: A Legendary Painter, A Shocking Heist, and the Birth of a Global Celebrity by Nicholas Day Kate Quealy-Gainer, Editor Day, Nicholas The Mona Lisa Vanishes: A Legendary Painter, A Shocking Heist, and the Birth of a Global Celebrity; illus. by Brett Helquist. Random House Studio, 2023 [288p] Trade ed. ISBN 9780593643846 $19.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9780593643860 $11.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R Gr. 5-10 It's perhaps unthinkable that for much of its life, the Mona Lisa was simply another painting in the Louvre, nothing particularly special and interesting only to artists and avid art lovers. It was only after its theft on August 21, 1911, that it became notorious, the subject of "the greatest heist in art history" and an obsession of the general public. Everyone had a theory: was it a besotted admirer? An inside job? A brilliant mastermind? The truth would turn out to be rather banal, but the investigation itself was the embodiment of a world on the cusp of change, as forensic science, media speculation, and a changing art world met old guard prejudice, rising nationalism, and misplaced suspicion. Day walks readers through both the theft and the creation of the Mona Lisa, bouncing between turn-of-the-century Paris and the Italian Renaissance, where he introduces Leonardo da Vinci and the purported model of the Mona Lisa, Lisa Gherardini. The playful prose in direct address charmingly invites readers into a story that details everything from the stuffy gender roles of fifteenth-century Florence to a wildly inept police investigation to a rather deceitful and not at all admirable Pablo Picasso. Helquist's black-and-white vignettes match the text's breezy tone, together balancing a sense of light-hearted adventure with a hefty amount of information about the heist and the painting's eventual recovery. No art history requirement here; readers simply need to love a good story to enjoy this bit of historical fun. Copyright © 2023 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois