Eduardo de Valfierno the Valfierno story. Eduardo de Valfierno Eduardo de Valfierno (1850–1931), who posed as a "marqués" (marquis), was an Argentine con man who allegedly masterminded the theft of the "Mona Lisa" in 1911. In 1932 journalist Karl Decker published a story in the "Saturday Evening Post" claiming Valfierno paid several men to steal the work of art from the Louvre, including museum employee Vincenzo Peruggia. On August 21, 1911 Peruggia hid the "Mona Lisa" under his coat and simply walked out the door. Before the heist took place, Valfierno allegedly commissioned French art restorer and forger Yves Chaudron to make six
Writers in Paris which was circulated privately to amuse his friends.Though it was never published, he was banished from Paris to his chateau in Burgundy. Of the great French writers of the 18th century, the two most famous, Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, spent most of their careers far from Paris, either in exile or under strict censorship. Early in his career Voltaire had been welcomed to the salon of Madame Pompadour, and had been granted a government pension, which he did not touch for twelve years; the scholar and co-author of the first Encyclopedia, d'Alembert had been provided an apartment in the Louvre;