The Mona Lisa became famous because it was stolen

The Mona Lisa wasn't always the most famous painting in the world. What set off its fame was, in part, a theft.

In 1911 a Louvre employee, Vincenzo Peruggia, took it down from the wall and walked out with it hidden under his coat. For two years, people queued to see the empty space on the wall where it had hung.

It turned up in 1913, when Peruggia tried to sell it in Florence. By then, her face was already in every newspaper on the planet.