That when the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre in Paris in 1911 it was fingerprint evidence that led to the capture of her thief?  In 1911 the Mona Lisa was unceremoniously stolen off the Louvre walls and carried out of the museum after it closed.   It took detectives two years to apprehend a suspect, Vincenzo Peruggia, a Louvre employee. Peruggia’s fingerprint left behind on the painting’s protective glass finally definitively tied the thief to the crime.

For more on crimes against art come see the museum’s temporary  Crimes in the Arts exhibit,  up from February 12 thru April 26, 2010. Click here for details.

Read all about fingerprints!

Tags: Art Crime, Evidence, Fingerprint, Fingerprints, Forensic Science, National Museum of Crime & Punishment

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 28th, 2010 at 4:00 pm and is filed under Forensics in The News, Fun Facts, Museum Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.