The Mona Lisa Vanishes: A Legendary Painter, a Shocking Heist, and the Birth of a Global Celebrity

In August, over a century ago, a guard rushed into the Louvre director's office in Paris with urgent news: the Mona Lisa had been stolen. No one initially knew who took it—suspicions ranged from an international theft ring to a wealthy American collector to the young Spanish painter Pablo Picasso. This book tells the true story of how Leonardo da Vinci's painting became the world's most famous artwork following the heist. It is structured as a "witty thriller" (The New York Times) and includes black-and-white illustrations throughout. The narrative moves between multiple time periods and perspectives: the turn-of-the-century Paris backstreets where the theft occurred, the thieves and detectives of that era, and Leonardo da Vinci's life as he created the painting. The book explores a central paradox: the most famous painting in the world should never have existed at all. Winner of the Sibert Medal and the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, the book was named one of the best of the year by Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, NPR, The New York Public Library, The Chicago Public Library, and The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books.