Mona Lisa is Missing - The Man Who Stole The Masterpiece - by Joe Medeiros (2013)

MONA LISA IS MISSING is the untold story of Vincenzo Peruggia, the Italian immigrant who committed the greatest little-known art theft in history. For more than 30 years,writer/director Joe Medeiros was obsessed with finding out Peruggia‘s true motive. So with the help of researchers, art experts and Celestina Peruggia’s children Silvio and Graziella, Medeiros and his team embarked on an epic journey leading them to the Louvre, to Peruggia’s hiding place in Paris, to Florence where he returned the painting, to documents in the French and Italian archives.
And ultimately… to the truth.

How did an unassuming house painter from Italy pull off "the greatest little known art heist in modern time?" Was his motivation more than money? Writer-director Joe Medeiros traces the path of Vincenzo Peruggia, charged with the 1911 theft of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa from The Louvre, and finds the story of a daughter mourning the father she never knew and a country recovering from old wounds. Combining historical photographs, animation and interviews with Peruggia's descendants, Medeiros answers why and how the man called "Macaroni" by his French co-workers absconded with and kept the legendary painting for two years. This riveting, often humorous documentary portrays a man struggling to find his way in the world and make his family proud. Most touching are the scenes of Peruggia's 84-year-old daughter, Celestina, who grew up on stories about her father and longed for the truth.