Andrew Lloyd Webber Is Developing a Musical About the Mona Lisa Theft
A century-old art crime that transformed the Mona Lisa into a global obsession is heading toward the stage. Andrew Lloyd Webber said he is developing a new musical centered on the 1911 theft of Leonardo da Vinci’s portrait from the Louvre, according to a report first published by The Stage. Webber said the project has not yet been written.
The idea reaches back to one of the most consequential thefts in museum history. In August 1911, Louvre employee Vincenzo Peruggia removed the painting from the museum, believing it should be returned to Italy. The work was recovered two years later, but the damage to the Louvre’s reputation was immediate, and the case drew international attention far beyond the art world.
Leonardo began the portrait around 1503 in Florence, though he did not finish it for more than a decade. Early accounts, including those by 16th-century art historian Giorgio Vasari, identify the sitter as Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Florentine silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo. Other theories have persisted over the centuries, including the suggestion that the painting may instead depict Isabella d’Este. Whatever the sitter’s identity, the work’s technical refinement — especially Leonardo’s use of sfumato and his anatomical knowledge — helped secure its place in art history.
The theft, however, did as much as the painting itself to build the image of the Mona Lisa as a modern icon. The Louvre, which acquired the work in 1904, saw a surge of visitors after the painting disappeared, and the public fascination only intensified when it returned. By 1914, the portrait had become a cultural symbol rather than simply a masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance.
Webber’s proposed musical adds another layer to that long afterlife. The painting’s story has already moved through scholarship, scandal, and mass tourism; now it may become a theatrical narrative about desire, nationalism, and the strange power of absence.
