The Murder of Vicenzo Peruja at the Louvre

Vicenzo Peruja stole the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1913. Valfierno Chaudron meticulously copied every single detail of that little painting to create a template he could later reproduce on aged wooden panels. He even formulated a method of producing the surface cracking endemic to old paint and varnish, something called crack-a-lour. The beauty of the crime was that a collector would never have access to the real Mona Lisa in order to compare its intricate details. Each collector would then assume that he or she was offered the actual authentic painting since they couldn't advertise ownership.