Mona Lisa is Missing, also known as The Missing Piece: Mona Lisa, Her Thief, the True Story, is a documentary that takes a journalist human interest and whimsical angle at uncovering the reason why Vincenzo Peruggia stole the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911. Joe Medeiros directs, stars and narrates in Mona Lisa is Missing.
Medeiros uses Mona Lisa is Missing to reveal how his journey as an investigator unfolded instead of remaining unseen and unheard behind the camera and telling the story from 1911 until Peruggia died. Medeiros shows his journey to Italy to meet Peruggia’s only daughter and travels with her descendants to France to investigate. Instead of using official interpreters or translates, Medeiros uses friends and acquaintances to interpret archival written documents on camera.
The amiable tone of Mona Lisa is Missing dilutes the harsh conclusions of Medeiros’ investigation. First, Mona Lisa is Missing reveals that Periggia, like many immigrants, had to deal with toxic working conditions. Second, Mona Lisa is Missing uncovers that the French directed much of their animosity towards Italian immigrants. Third, Mona Lisa is Missing implicitly compares and contrasts state condoned theft through war versus Peruggia’s theft in France and Italy. In Peruggia’s hometown, there are plaques honoring Mussolini, but even though the town uses Peruggia’s act to attract tourists, the town does not honor him before Mona Lisa is Missing because he is a criminal. Fourth, Mona Lisa is Missing reveals the ridiculous and contradictory stereotypes faced by immigrants as embodied by others treatment of Peruggia once he was caught.
Mona Lisa is Missing feels like a lightly informative and entertaining way to spend the evening, but its pleasing delivery facilitates the delivery of some hard truths about life in Italy and France in the early twentieth century and may unfortunately remind you of our treatment of immigrants in the early twenty first century.