Culture vultures beware! The original Mona Lisa, the most famous portrait in the Louvre, the four hundred year-old work of legendary artist, Leonardo da Vinci, may be, “a cold and lonely lovely work of art” as Nat King Cole crooned years ago, but also a cold and lonely, lovely fake. In his new novel, The Last Mona Lisa, author/artist Jonathan Santlofer teases us with the premise that the woman with the enigmatic smile now hanging in the Louvre may not be the original painting.
Based on a strange but true story, Santlofer details the factual theft of “Leonardo’s Lady” stolen from the Louvre in 1911. The thief was an impoverished gallery employee, Vincenzo Peruggia. Santlofer asserts Perrugia executed the heist to lift the sagging spirits of his sickly wife, Simone, who craved one small favor during her difficult pregnancy… the Mona Lisa painting “to be hung over their bed.” The Peruggias kept the painting for two years and may have shared it with French counterfeiter, Yves Chaudron, who could have easily copied it. Peruggia went to prison for two years, afterwhich the acclaimed painting was returned to the Louvre. But was the painting the original one Peruggia pinched?
Fast forward to 2019. Luke Perrone, Peruggia’s great-grandson, is a struggling artist and non-tenured, New York University professor of art history. He receives an intriguing e-mail from a classics professor in Italy regarding the existence of his long deceased great-great grandfather’s diary. The secret journal, Luke learns, is now housed in the Laurentian Reference Library in Florence. It may contain clues to the authenticity of the Louvre’s most prized possession, La Giaconda, commonly known as Mona Lisa. Luke seizes this opportunity as a sure-fire route to tenure. He immediately skips town and follows the Holy Grail to Peruggia’s diary. But Interpol agent, John Washington Smith, a crackerjack detective in the Lyon Headquarters Art Theft Division is way ahead of him.
Washington leaps at his long-awaited chance for promotion and especially a rare opportunity to extricate himself from the moribund career behind an office computer. He’s obsessed with acquiring Peruggia’s diary to uncover its secrets. But so is an unscrupulous Russian thug.
Santlofer’s fast-paced thriller is a fascinating voyage into the complex world of the world’s priceless Renaissance paintings, ruthless characters and the profitable world of art forgery. He takes us into famous art galleries, grand residences in Florence, Paris and New York City. And introduces us to seductress, Alexandra, a distraction who may take Luke off his goal.
Incidentally, in 2021, the art world speculated there are about six counterfeit Mona Lisas including the contentious Isleworth painting. Before you pay for that hard-won ticket to see her “mystic smile” in person, perhaps you might first want to read The Last Mona Lisa or inquire about the last time the Louvre tested its provenance.