Vincenzo Peruggia in the town of Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, France. His death was not widely reported by the media; obituaries appeared mistakenly only when another Vincenzo Peruggia died in Haute-Savoie in 1947. There are currently two predominant theories regarding the theft of the "Mona Lisa". Peruggia said he did it for a patriotic reason: he wanted to bring the painting back for display in Italy "after it was stolen by Napoleon". Although perhaps sincere in his motive, Vincenzo may not have known that Leonardo da Vinci took this painting as a gift for Francis I when he moved to France to become a painter
Catalog of paintings in the Louvre Museum Catalog of paintings in the Louvre Museum The Catalog of paintings in the Louvre Museum lists the painters of the collection of the Louvre Museum as they are catalogued in the Joconde database. The collection contains roughly 5,500 paintings by 1,400 artists born before 1900, and over 500 named artists are French by birth. For painters with more than two works in the collection, or for paintings by unnamed and unknown artists, see the Louvre website. Most artists in the collection are represented with only one or two works, but some artists are represented with many many more; for example