Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 204, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 August 1910 — FAMOUS PAINTING REPORTED STOLEN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FAMOUS PAINTING REPORTED STOLEN

PARIS. —The government officials still are silent concerning the reported theft from the Louvre of the most famous portrait in the world, Leonard da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa.” The story that the picture has been stolen and that a copy of it was put in its place receives general credence, in view of similar thefts that have been committed in the Louvre. The painting is said to be now in New York in possession of a wealthy American.. In the art world this painting, which sometimes is called “La Gioconda,’ is considered priceless. Tfie most striking feature of the portrait is the mysterious smile that lurks in the eyes and lips of the subject. It took Da Vinci five years to bring out this peculiar expression, and at the end of that time he declared the work unfinished. The task of painting “Mona Lisa” was difficult and painstaking in the extreme. Da Vinci found that his model, a woman, assumed a peculiar expression only when ai ease in a certain posture, and when listening to a certain strain of music