Guillaume Apollinaire returned one of the stolen statues to the French newspaper the "Paris-Journal". Apollinaire implicated his friend Picasso, who was also brought in for questioning in the theft of the "Mona Lisa", but he was also exonerated. The theft of the "Mona Lisa" was perpetrated by Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian house painter who acted alone and was only caught two years later when he tried to sell the painting in Florence. Apollinaire wrote the preface for the first Cubist exposition outside of Paris; "VIII Salon des Indépendants", Brussels, 1911. In an open-handed preface to the catalogue of the Brussels Indépendants show,
Evacuation of the Louvre museum art collection during World War II responsible of the conservation of the French art collections under the Kunstschutz principle, arrived in Paris to oversee France’s art collection, but the museum was almost empty. He knew what was going on but voluntarily did not do anything. Evacuation of the Louvre museum art collection during World War II During the beginning of the German invasions during World War II, Jacques Jaujard, the director of the French Musées Nationaux, foreshadowed the fall of France and decided to organize the evacuation of the Louvre art collection in province. On 25 August 1939, the Louvre was closed for 3 days, officially