On August 21, 1911, the Gioconda was stolen by Vincenzo Perugi, an Italian mirror craftsman who was working in the Louvre at the time. Why he did it is still not clear. There is a theory that Peruggi was going to return the Mona Lisa to Italy, confident that it had arrived in France illegally, not knowing or forgetting that Leonardo da Vinci had brought the painting to France himself. The police search proved futile. The suspects in the theft were Pablo Picasso and Guillaume Apollinaire; the latter was even arrested, but then released. The famous portrait was found only two years later in his historic homeland. A hapless kidnapper responded to an advertisement in the newspaper and offered to sell the "Gioconda" to the Director of the Uffizi gallery. Most likely, he planned to make copies and pass them off as originals. Perugia, he was arrested and imprisoned, but the judges took his Italian patriotism into account and gave him a short sentence.
As a result of long travels, only a year later, on January 4, 1914, the masterpiece (after numerous shows in Italian cities) returned to the Paris Louvre.
The main mystery of Gioconda lies in her smile. Everyone knows that one can smile in different ways: happily, sadly, embarrassed, seductively, sardonically, mockingly. But in Mono Lisa's case, none of these characteristics fit. There are a great many different explanations for her smile, some of them worthy of attention, others one wants only to laugh at.
Someone claimed that the woman depicted on the canvas is pregnant. And her smile is the feeling of an expectant mother, feeling the movement of the fetus. Another asserts that the smile of Gioconda is intended for the lover. And he is the artist himself.
Someone (returning to the question of the painting's self-portrait) believes it is the enigmatic smile of Leonardo himself.
The smile of the Mono Lisa is quite disturbing to doctors. For them, the portrait of Gioconda - a perfect chance to try on her this or that diagnosis, without fear of committing a medical error. What was not ascribed to the poor woman depicted in the portrait. She had facial palsy, high cholesterol, and even missing her front teeth.
Neurophysiologists also tried to solve the mystery of Mono Lisa's smile. According to their version, the mystery lies not in the model itself and not in the master, but in the audience. Why do we get the feeling that her smile is now disappearing, then appears again? Harvard neurophysiologist Margaret Livingston argues that the magic of art has nothing to do with it. It has to do with the peculiarities of human sight: the appearance and disappearance of the smile is influenced by which side of the face of Gioconda one looks at. There are two types of human vision: central, which is detail-oriented, and peripheral, which is not as clear. As soon as you concentrate on the eyes of the "model" or try to embrace her whole face with your gaze, Gioconda gives you a smile. But if you concentrate your gaze on her lips, the smile will melt right away. That's how scientists scientifically dealt with the mysterious smile of the Mona Lisa.
However, whatever it does not prove human physiology, many are more pleasant to think that the mystery of the great Mona Lisa is in the genius of its creator. Everyone admiring the great da Vinci's masterpiece unwittingly tries to unravel the mystery of her smile himself. And the clue seems to know only Leonardo..