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Welcome to the History Extra podcast, fascinating historical conversations from the makers of BBC

History magazine.

In August 1911, an Italian handyman walked out of Paris's Louvre Museum with the Mona Lisa

tucked under his arm.

It was an audacious theft that shocked the art world, aroused the attention of the world's greatest detectives, and even saw Picasso

eyed with suspicion. Speaking to Charlotte Hodgman, Dr. Noah Charnie separates fact from fiction

in the story of what is perhaps the most famous

art heist in history and explores why Leonardo's painting continues to intrigue and fascinate

500 years on. Noah, thank you so much for joining us today. We're going to be talking about your

new book, The Feths of the Mona Lisa, which I'm really, really enjoying. It's a really fascinating topic. And for a painting that's so well known, I've certainly learned a lot from reading the book. Perhaps we can start the interview just by you telling us a little bit about the painting when it was painted, who painted it, just sort of setting the scene, really. Of course. Thank you so much for the kind words. So the Mona Lisa is by far the most

famous artwork in the world, but people think they know about it or they know maybe a one to two

sentence version, but there's so much more to it. And that's the goal of this book to kind of the

complete story of it. So as a physical object, it's a portrait on an oak panel painted with oil paints by Leonardo

Da Vinci, beginning in 1503. The history books will tell you he finished it in 1506, but that's up for

debate because he seems to have actually continued to alter it and paint it throughout his life

...