The theft of the Mona Lisa

This is an odd little excerpt from Vanity Fair of a book about the 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa and other art in Paris.

The shocking theft of the Mona Lisa, in August 1911, appeared to have been solved 28 months later, when the painting was recovered. In an excerpt from their new book, the authors suggest that the audacious heist concealed a perfect — and far more lucrative — crime.

Expecting new revelations, I read on but it was the same story told in previous books. Regardless, it’s a great story and worth the read but nothing new if you’ve heard it before.

Update: Someone’s doing a documentary. (thx, rakesh)

• art
• books
• Leonardo da Vinci
• Mona Lisa

Mona Lisa, evolved

Leonardo da Vinci was a polymath and all that but this would have blown his tiny mind: the Mona Lisa “painted” using just 50 semi-transparent polygons. (via waxy)

• art
• Leonardo da Vinci
• Mona Lisa

Why does the woman depicted in the

Why does the woman depicted in the Mona Lisa appear to be both smiling and not smiling at the same time? The smile part of the Mona Lisa’s face was painted by Leonardo in low spatial frequencies. This means that when you look right at her mouth, there’s no smile. But if you look at her eyes or elsewhere in the portrait, your peripheral vision picks up the smile. (via collision detection)

• art
• Leonardo da Vinci
• Mona Lisa
• physics
• science

myDaVinci takes your photo and pastes your

myDaVinci takes your photo and pastes your face onto the Mona Lisa. Not a fan of Leonardo? Try being the Girl with a Pearl Earring or American Gothic. (via ais)

• art
• Leonardo da Vinci
• Mona Lisa
• photography
• remix

Two Da Vincis long held in private

Two Da Vincis long held in private collections to go on public display for the first time.

• art
• Leonardo da Vinci

Da Vinci scholar may have found a

Da Vinci scholar may have found a long lost Da Vinci fresco.

• art
• Leonardo da Vinci