The Mona Lisa LEVELED BOOK • P

Mystery The
A Reading A–Z Level P Leveled Book
Word Count: 932
Mona Lisa
Mystery

An Art History Mystery

by Dina Anastasio
Illustrated by David Cockcroft

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The
15 (bottom): © Bettmann/Getty Images; fingerprint icon (used throughout): ©
Grzegorz Kula/123RF

Mona Lisa
Mystery

The Mona Lisa Mystery

An Art History Mystery Level P Leveled Book
© Learning A–Z
by Dina Anastasio An Art History Mystery Correlation
Illustrated by David Cockcroft by Dina Anastasio
Illustrated by David Cockcroft
LEVEL P
Fountas & Pinnell M
www.readinga-z.com All rights reserved. Reading Recovery 28
www.readinga-z.com DRA 28
Between the years 1503 and 1506, the New evidence supports the long-held
Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci worked belief that she was a real person and her
on a painting that would become one of name was Lisa. The evidence also shows
the most famous paintings in the world. that both Lisa’s family and her husband,
It is called the a wealthy silk merchant in Florence,
Mona Lisa. knew Leonardo’s father.

Until recently, The small painting has been hanging in

there were few the Louvre Museum in Paris, France, for
certain facts over 200 years. Every day, visitors come
known about to stare at her
the woman in mysterious
the painting— smile and her
or about her life. eyes. They try
Detail of the portrait of the Mona Lisa,
painted by Leonardo da Vinci between Her real identity to imagine
1503 and 1506
had remained what she was
unproven. Many people thought that thinking about
Leonardo da Vinci studied anatomy, bones,
she lived in the town of Florence, Italy, as she posed. and muscles and was able to make his
figures appear lifelike.
where Leonardo also lived. Others Artists looked
believed that he painted it by copying closely to see what special skills
the parts of several different people. Leonardo used to make her hands look
Some people even thought that the so natural. How did he create the
artist just imagined her in his mind. shadowy background behind her?

The Mona Lisa Mystery • Level P 3 4

But in 1911, another mystery about the Louis entered the room where the Mona
Mona Lisa was created. One day, the Lisa had always hung. But the painting
painting disappeared and didn’t come wasn’t there. Had someone moved it?
back for over two years. He waited for a while. Then he asked a
guard to please go and ask about it.
On August 22, 1911, an artist named
When the guard came back, he had very
Louis came to the Louvre Museum to
bad news.
study and copy the Mona Lisa, as artists
and students were allowed to do. It was The Mona Lisa was missing.
a Tuesday, which is important because
on Monday the museum was closed.

The Mona Lisa Mystery • Level P 5 6

 They thought that when the guard was
away, the thief simply had taken the
painting off the wall. He carried it to the
stairs. Then he took off the painting’s
heavy frame. The Mona Lisa is painted
on a piece of wood—so it couldn’t be
rolled up.

The police were called. They searched

every room. Soon, they had Clue
Number One. The Mona Lisa’s wooden
frame was found near the stairs.

The police questioned every person who

worked at the museum. They felt sure
that the theft had occurred on Monday, He had put the painting under his work
when the museum was closed. They shirt and gone down the stairs. The door
guessed that the thief had been a was locked. He knew how to take off the
museum laborer. Or had he just dressed lock, so he did. Then he walked outside
as one—so no one would notice him? and was gone.

The Mona Lisa Mystery • Level P 7 8

 Then the police found Clue Number
Two. Clue Number Two was a
thumbprint. It was on the glass of
the frame that they found by the stairs.
The experts compared the thumbprint
on the glass to all the thumbprints they
had put in the file. Would one match?
Would this print solve the crime?

The museum closed for a week. The

police talked with everyone they could
think of. They closed all the border
crossings in and out of France.
Fingerprint experts arrived. They
fingerprinted people from all over the
city and put the fingerprints on file.
Every day, people waited to hear what
the police had learned.

When the museum opened again, people

came to stare at the empty space where
the Mona Lisa had hung for over 100
years. They just couldn’t believe that the
Mona Lisa was gone.

The Mona Lisa Mystery • Level P 9 10

 Then came Clue Number Three. But
perhaps it shouldn’t be called a clue
at all, because it was the thief himself
who told the police about his motive for
taking the painting. The famous painter
of the Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci,
was Italian. Leonardo had painted the
Everyone waited for the fingerprint Mona Lisa in Italy. But the painting had
results. But there was a big problem. been hanging in a museum in France for
The thumbprint on the glass was from the years.
thief’s left hand. The fingerprint experts Can you guess the thief’s motive?
had taken prints from people’s right
hands. They couldn’t match the right- Two years after the theft, on December
hand prints in the file to the thief’s left 10, 1913, a man named Vincenzo walked
thumbprint. into an antiques store in Florence, Italy.

Everyone was upset. No one knew what “I have the Mona Lisa,” he said.
to do next. For the next two years, people The owner of the antiques store called
called the police almost every day. the director of a museum in Florence.
Everyone had a new theory about what They both went with Vincenzo to his
had happened to the Mona Lisa, or where hotel room.
it was. But there were no real clues.

The Mona Lisa seemed to have vanished.

The Mona Lisa Mystery • Level P 11 12

 Safely back in Paris, the painting was
examined by experts. They wanted to be
sure that this was the real painting, and
not a forgery. X-rays and photographs
were made. Was this the same paint
and varnish used in other Leonardo
paintings? What about the wood on
which it is painted? How old was it?

Vincenzo opened a trunk and removed

a false bottom. There was Leonardo’s
Mona Lisa.

Vincenzo admitted to stealing it. He had

been a laborer at the museum. He saw
the Mona Lisa every day. He was sad
that it was in a museum in France. His
motive for taking it, he said, was to
return the Mona Lisa to Italy, where he
believed it truly belonged.

The Mona Lisa Mystery • Level P 13 14

 Glossary
antiques (n.) art, furniture, or objects that
are old and valuable (p. 12)

border (n.) the line that divides one

country or area from another
(p. 9)

forgery (n.) a false copy of a valuable

object (p. 14)

masterpiece (n.) an extraordinarily good or

impressive piece of art (p. 15)

motive (n.) a need or belief that causes

The painting was indeed Leonardo’s a person to do something
masterpiece. The Mona Lisa was returned (p. 12)
to a special place in the Louvre Museum.
posed (v.) sat very still (p. 4)
It still hangs there today, and is seen by
over fourteen thousand people a day. theory (n.) a possible explanation(p. 11)

vanished (v.) disappeared; not in sight

After only seven months, Vincenzo (p. 11)
left jail to cheers. He was a celebrity.
People sent him wine and flowers. varnish (n.) a clear, liquid seal that dries
to protect a surface (p. 14)
He married, and then the man who had
said that he hated France—moved his family back there!
Vincenzo Peruggia opened a successful paint and varnish
store in a small French town. There he lived a quiet and
uneventful life until he died in 1947.

The Mona Lisa Mystery • Level P 15 16