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,
Paris in the 16th century February 1553. Ballets also became popular at the French court, and were performed to celebrate weddings and other special occasions. The first performance of "Circé" by Balthazar de Beaujoyeux was performed at the Louvre on September 24, 1581, to celebrate the wedding of Anne de Joyeuse, a favorite of the King, with Marguerite de Vaudémont. The Renaissance in painting was brought to Paris with the court of Francis I, with the arrival of his Italian court painters Rosso Fiorentino, Francesco Primaticcio (known in French as Primatice); and Nicolo dell'Abbate. who worked both in Paris and in the decoration of the