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ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSOn a Monday morning in August 1911, the most famous painting in the world disappeared from the Louvre in Paris, and no one noticed for over a day. *The Mona Lisa Vanishes* tells two stories at once: the audacious theft that turned a little-known portrait into a global celebrity, and the remarkable life of the man who painted it four hundred years earlier. Leonardo da Vinci was born illegitimate, trained as a painter's apprentice in Florence, and spent decades chasing knowledge in every direction, from horse anatomy to human dissection to the mechanics of flight, before he finally agreed to paint a Florentine merchant's wife named Lisa Gherardini. How that quiet portrait ended up stolen, hunted across two continents, and eventually recovered in a cramped hotel room is a story full of surprising suspects, a chaotic investigation, and one very ordinary thief no one saw coming.
Free Battle of the Books questions for The Mona Lisa Vanishes: A Legendary Painter, a Shocking Heist, and the Birth of a Global Celebrity
SPOILERSEvery one of these has the same answer, and that is the point. In a real battle the question is read aloud with a dozen other books in play, and students have a few seconds to place it. Here is what a battle might ask about The Mona Lisa Vanishes: A Legendary Painter, a Shocking Heist, and the Birth of a Global Celebrity. Use them as a quiz, a trivia round, or BOTB practice.
Where in the book they come from
- Early in the book
In what book does a man hide inside a Louvre storage closet overnight among easels and paint boxes?
✓ Answer
The Mona Lisa Vanishes: A Legendary Painter, a Shocking Heist, and the Birth of a Global Celebrity by Nicholas Day
The thief slipped in among the supplies of the copyists, the amateur artists who came to the Louvre to copy great paintings. The museum allowed them to store their belongings in closets, which provided the perfect hiding place.
- First half
In what book does an early criminologist fingerprint a group of organ-grinders' monkeys after a string of jewel robberies?
✓ Answer
The Mona Lisa Vanishes: A Legendary Painter, a Shocking Heist, and the Birth of a Global Celebrity by Nicholas Day
Edmond Locard noticed that the prints from burglaries did not look human. He fingerprinted the monkeys of all the city's organ-grinders and found a match. The monkey went to the zoo and the owner went to prison.
- First half
In what book does an artist appear at a duke's court holding a silver lyre shaped like a horse's skull?
✓ Answer
The Mona Lisa Vanishes: A Legendary Painter, a Shocking Heist, and the Birth of a Global Celebrity by Nicholas Day
Leonardo introduced himself in Milan as a musician, not a painter. He built his own silver lyre shaped like a horse's skull, which the author calls an extremely Leonardo thing to do.
- Second half
In what book does a friar in Florence write that the great artist "cannot abide the paintbrush"?
✓ Answer
The Mona Lisa Vanishes: A Legendary Painter, a Shocking Heist, and the Birth of a Global Celebrity by Nicholas Day
The friar was responding to Isabella d'Este, who kept pestering for a portrait. Leonardo was too absorbed in geometry to paint.
- Second half
In what book does a Spanish artist hide two stolen ancient heads at the back of his sock drawer?
✓ Answer
The Mona Lisa Vanishes: A Legendary Painter, a Shocking Heist, and the Birth of a Global Celebrity by Nicholas Day
Picasso wrapped the stolen Iberian heads and stashed them in his dresser, panicking when their existence might tie him to the larger crime.
- Near the end
In what book does an art dealer in Florence almost throw out a letter from someone calling himself "Leonard"?
✓ Answer
The Mona Lisa Vanishes: A Legendary Painter, a Shocking Heist, and the Birth of a Global Celebrity by Nicholas Day
Alfredo Geri received the letter from a supposed Italian patriot offering to return the Mona Lisa to its birthplace.
