The Mona Lisa was stolen? Surprisingly, yes – on August 21, 1911. And even more shocking – it was taken by a simple Italian immigrant, Vincenzo Peruggia, who hid it in his dingy tenement room in Paris for more than 2-1/2 years. How did he do it? Why did he do it? The answers to those questions and more will be revealed on Sunday, August 28th at 6:00 PM in the award-winning documentary, Mona Lisa Is Missing, (monslisamissing.com) airing on local PBS television station, WHYY Philadelphia. “At WHYY, we’re always on the hunt for interesting and entertaining programs that showcase local filmmakers or those with ties to our community,” explained Betsy Braun, Director of Programming, WHYY. Mona Lisa is Missing takes it one step further telling the story of the heist of one of the most famous art icons in history in a creative and humous way. We’re excited to bring this film to our audience.”
Philadelphia native, Joe Medeiros, Writer/Director and former Head Writer for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno spent over 35 years obsessed with discovering the true story of the most unthinkable art theft in history by the most unlikely of thieves. In 2008, Medeiros discovered that Peruggia’s daughter Celestina was alive and still living in Dumenza, Italy, the thief’s home town. Justine Mestichelli Medeiros, Producer and former South Philadelphian, suggested the 1973 Temple Radio, Television and Film graduate tell the thief’s story as a documentary after Joe’s many years of stop-and-start attempts to write a narrative feature.
With a small crew and team of researchers, including Letizia Rubino, also a Temple graduate and former NBC 10 executive, serving as their Italian interpreter, and Meredith Tolan, a writer and Wynnewood native living in Paris at the time with her husband, Stéphane Dichamp as their on the ground Paris researchers and translators, the Medeiros’s went to see Celestina in 2008 to learn about her father’s life. Unfortunately, Celestina really didn’t know much about her father because he died when she was a toddler and the Peruggia family, embarrassed by the theft, rarely spoke of it. “But Celestina and I shared the same goal, ” Joe asserted. “We both wanted to know the truth why Vincenzo did what he did.” With the help of Celestina’s son, Silvio and her daughter, Graziella, and their team they journeyed to Paris where Peruggia had lived and worked, to Florence where he brought the painting, to the French and Italian archives where the they waded through thousands of documents from the time of the theft, and ultimately to the truth, which they shared with Celestina – a truth they were not sure she would want to hear.
If you click on this link at 6pm (ET) August 28, you can view the program here. https://video.whyy.org/livestream/