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Decoder Rings Back | Why the Mona Lisa?
00:25:05
How one small painting became the most famous in the world.
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- [00:00]
A
Foreign. Hi, it's Willa. Welcome back and Happy New Year. We have a brand spanking new Decoder Ring feature for you today and it's a little different than our usual episodes, so I want to tell you about it. A couple of weeks ago we asked people who listen to Decoder Ring to consider supporting the show by signing up for our membership program, Slate Plus. It went really well. We have a lot of new subscribers to whom we are extraordinarily grateful. They're helping us to do our work and we really appreciate it. As a thank you and to make a Slate plus membership even more worth everyone's while, we're starting a brand new segment called Decoder Rings Back. We're calling it that because we will be ringing back listeners to answer their questions directly. We are really lucky to get lots of listener suggestions for the show. You heard some great ones in the mailbag episode we just put out last month, but we actually get even more good questions than we can possibly answer that way. So we're starting this new additional way to take on listener queries. Once a month. I'm going to personally call up a listener who has written to us or left us a voicemail and we are going to have a conversation based on extensive research in which I try my damnedest to sad, satisfyingly answer their question. If you have a question you want explained to you, all you have to do is email decoder ringlate.com or call us at 347-460-7281. We'll read and sort through the questions, select a handful of them, and then get in touch to bore down a little deeper into your curiosity. We'll then find out everything we can and call you back to try and give you the answer. So what happened to lime candy? Why are women popping out of giant cakes a thing? When did people start painting their houses matte black? These are the sort of things I'll be calling to explain. There is one catch though. After this inaugural installment, all future episodes of Decoder Rings Back will only be available to Slate plus subscribers. So if you want to be sure not to miss them, please sign up for Slate Plus. Slate plus is also, as ever, a way to support the show that is really meaningful and to get to hear it without any ads. So go to slate.com decoder+ or subscribe now from the Decoder Ring show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Okay, thank you for letting me do all that situating. Here's the show. This is Decoder Rings Back. A while ago we Got an email from a listener in Fullerton, California with a question about the most famous piece of art in the world. I knew the answer involved an art heist, and who can resist an art heist? So I had to call him back. So do you just want to tell me your name and like, tell me your name and slang about yourself?
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B
My name is Dustin Malik. I have worked for bank of America for almost 15 years, and I get a sabbatical next year, which I'm very excited about.
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A
What are you gonna do?
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B
I. Right now I kind of want to take the train. Even though reviews in terms of like taking the Amtrak across the country aren't that great, but I just kind of take the train and kind of see the country.
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A
Oh, that's exciting. That's fun. Do you listen to podcasts a lot?
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B
I do. I have like my, you know, four or five podcasts that I listen to, yours being one of them. How do you like doing podcasts?
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A
I really love it and I also find it to be a tremendous amount of work in a way that I'm just like, oh, this is still so hard.
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B
Do you find yourself at parties just cornering somebody and like after like two cocktails, just talking someone's ear off and they're like, jesus Christ.
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A
I hope that I'm a good enough judge of character that, that it'll be fun for everybody for like, I'll do a tight five, you know?
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B
You know, I don't know. I asked that question only because, like, I have a tendency, I'll get like obsessed with something. Like I had this recent obsession with Earl Warren.
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A
Like the Supreme Court justice.
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B
Yeah.
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A
Okay.
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B
Yeah. So at my girlfriend's Christmas party recently, I found myself doing exactly that. Cornering someone and just dropping all these facts about Earl Warren. You just see them like, what the hell is this guy talking about?
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A
No, that sounds really interesting. You gotta, you gotta, you have to, you have to hone it to like your three facts and then they'll be delighted to hear from you.
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B
Yeah, that's a good idea. Yeah, you get on these kicks. That's why I love your guys show. It's like, you get on these kicks, you just go down these roads.
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A
Thank you. Okay, cool. Will you tell me about your question about the Mona Lisa?
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B
My question is, how did the Mona Lisa become the most recognizable painting by far in the world? It just came to me when I was going through some old books in the garage, and one of the books was like this coffee table, Leonardo da Vinci book. And I was thumbing through It. And I saw the painting and I was just like, you know, this is strange. Why is this so popular?
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A
Which it is, like, kind of weird when you stop to think about it, because it's just a lady sitting there.
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B
Yeah. And it's not so remarkable. I mean, I'm not an art, you know, expert, but it doesn't seem, you know, that great to me.
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A
And you've seen the Mona Lisa in person.
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B
I have seen the Mona Lisa in person. One whole room is dedicated to the Mona Lisa. You know, pretty sizable room. And it's completely packed. And you're fighting, you're elbowing people to go get a picture. It's the only piece of art in the Louvre that's like that.
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A
I have seen it once, too, although I don't think I actually. I think I got just overwhelmed. I was like, this isn't worth it. And I remember being like, oh, it's not like that big. Yeah.
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B
It wouldn't be strange size wise. It wouldn't be strange in someone's house.
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A
Right.
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B
I'm assuming, like, me, you probably read Da Vinci Code when it came out.
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A
Yeah, I did actually Cryptex that I used to keep secrets.
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C
It's Da Vinci's design.
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B
I don't know. There's this fascination with him is, I guess, more understandable because he's sort of an interesting person. But that painting in particular just strikes me as a little odd.
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A
Totally. Also, additionally, like, if you think about any other, like, there's a lot of really great books, but we're not like the one, you know. Yeah.
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B
There's not the book that everybody knows. In any other genre or category, it would be debatable.
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A
But there's no debate. This Mona Lisa is it.
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B
Yeah, there's no debate. The debate has been it's over.
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A
Right.
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B
But my question is, when was it over and how did we decide this?
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A
Okay, so you are not the first person to wonder this. Because it is odd. Sort of independent of the painting itself. Just that, like, we've all agreed. We don't. We agree so rarely, you know, that everyone just be like, yes, everyone knows it's the most famous painting in the world. And there is an answer to this. I mean, it's like, long and has many steps. But, like, basically there's an answer.
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B
Oh, wow.
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A
Okay. When we come back, that answer.
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C
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A
Okay, Leonardo da Vinci, born in April 1452, illegitimate son of like a merchant in Florence. And he basically very. He starts to apprentice as a painter and he basically becomes a extremely well regarded and famous genius in the latter half of the 1400s. Like Leonardo da Vinci is not like Van Gogh. Like he was never in his whole life disvalued. You know, he's like, everyone's been like that guy's a genius, A stone cold genius like the whole time. He did however, you know, have lots of interests. Like he was doing all his sketches of anatomy, he was thinking about modeling airplane and double hold bolts all up. The stuff that now makes him seem like the quintessential Renaissance man. But at the time in the late 1400s, it was just like, like a boom time for dope ass painters. Like there's just like, just really a lot of Renaissance like heavy hitters, like I mean sort of the most famous of which are like Michelangelo and Raphael, but I mean it's like Titian, Tintoretto, like everywhere you look there's someone who can like paint everyone else under the table. And my sense is that Da Vinci, while absolutely really widely regarded, like a lot of the positions one would have as a court painter are like kind of being occupied by like these other guys who are incredible. And so sort of towards the end of his life, in the 1500s, for the last three years of his life, he basically accepts a position in the court of the king of France, Francis the first. So he goes from Italy to France and he brings with him this painting that he has been working on since like 1503. They think around so like you know, over a decade and, and it is a painting of just a silk merchant's wife from Florence. The silk merchant is named Giacondo and his wife is named Lisa. Mona is essentially like a contraction of Mia Donna, like my lady. It's like madame. Okay, so the painting the Mona Lisa in French is known as La Joconde and in Italian is La Joconda because it's like Lisa Gioconda. Like it's just the ladies wife.
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B
I'm just curious if some guy was like, hey, I want to paint your wife for the next 10 years. Yeah, I think I would have a little Tinge of jealousy, maybe?
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A
No, I think it's the opposite. It's the opposite, though. It's like an honor.
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B
Oh, okay. Okay.
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A
Like, Leonardo's, like, really busy. Like, I. I read something that was like, why did he paint this guy's white? He, like, everyone wants Leonardo to paint them, and he paints this guy. And it sounds like the guy, the silk merchant, was like, in the same church as his dad. And his dad was like, maybe you need some money, paint this guy's wife. But it's like they want him to.
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B
So it was like, commission.
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A
Yes, totally. Okay. The silk merchant is like, please pa, paint my wife. But one of the questions is, why doesn't the silk merchant end up with the painting? Right. We don't know this. So basically, Leonardo starts painting it in 1503 ish. He definitely works on it for the next couple years, but then he keeps it and he's kind of working on it. And he literally brings it to France when he goes to France, that no one really understands quite why that. Also the painting is on just wood. Like, it's not on canvas. It's on, like a piece of poplar, which is, like, kind of common, but, like, it can't be rolled up or folded. Like, he had to really take it with him. Okay, so he takes this painting to France, he dies, and it's basically like hanging in all the kings of France's house for centuries. So it's like in the Fontainebleau. Then Louis XIV brings it to Versailles during the French Revolution, they start the Louvre, and pretty quickly it ends up in the Louvre. Napoleon takes it for a couple years, hangs it in his house, but then it goes back. Basically, starting in 1797, the Mona Lisa is in the Louvre. And this turns out to be sort of fortuitous because basically the center of the art world is like, actually gonna move to France and Paris. And this painting is hanging in the museum that's like the biggest, most esteemed art museum, like, in the world. And so in that way, it's like, if it had ended up in some backwater, you know, in Romania, we just. It just wouldn't be as famous because people wouldn't have seen it. But part of what's going for it is, like, it's in Paris and also, like, it's never not been well regarded. Like, her pose is apparently for the time, like, pretty original. He, like, blurs the background so there's like a depth perception. And he uses this technique called, like, sfumato. So it's like all these extremely Careful layering. Sfumato means, like, smokiness. So basically, around the corners of her eyes and mouth, there's like, that ambiguity that you're like, oh, what's she feeling? What's she thinking? So it was a masterpiece, but it's one of many. It's not like the one. And, like, you can know this actually, because in 1850, the Louvre, they sort of value all the paintings. And the Mona Lisa is valued at 90,000 francs, but, like, Leonardo's own Virgin on the rocks was 120,000 francs. And there's all these Titians and Raphaels that are valued for, like, 400 and 600,000. So it's like, it's a great painting, but it's like just another great painting, if that makes any sense. But throughout the 1800s, Leonardo da Vinci's own reputation is growing because the fact that he did so many different things is making him, like, seem more like a man of the time, you know, like really a Renaissance man. And also, apparently, the sort of like, intellectuals in Paris in the 1860s, like, get really fixated on the Mona Lisa as, like, the embodiment of, like, female sensuality and, like, the femme fatale and, like, enigmatic and mysterious. And a couple people write these just incredibly purple prose pieces just about how she's, like, so mysterious and incredible and, like, how just so overwrought, but, like, really sort of helps her kind of catch on. So she's like, on the up and up, is what I would say. That's, like, where we are in the 1890s. That's. That's, like, what's happening.
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B
I. I just. I have a feeling that technology is going to, like, the advances in communication are going to play a role in the sort of widespread, I don't know, popularization of da Vinci and.
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A
Yeah, you're totally right. Okay, so the other thing is, this reminded me is that. So, like, when the Louvre was started, it was just a place other artists in training were supposed to come and practice by painting great artists. Like, that's who it was for. By the early 1900s, it's still, like, extraordinarily common for artists to show up at the Louvre to paint, like, to copy the masters. And so in 1911, in August of 1911, August, I think, 23rd, a Tuesday, this guy comes to this room called the Salon Carre, which is where the Mona Lisa is. It's hanging in a room with. There's another painting by Leonardo, there's three by Titian, two by Raphael, a Tintoretto, Rubens I mean, we're talking, like, a big, fancy room. The paintings also, they're really worried about fire. So all these paintings are literally just on the wall, like, with four hooks, like in your house, you know, like, you can just lift it off, right? It had recently, the Louvre had gone out of its way to sort of protect some of these paintings. So, like, the Mona Lisa was actually in this big, giant glass box. They'd had people build it, and it had a frame, so weighed like, 200 pounds. But the painting itself was only, like, you know, 18. And he. This artist wants to paint a scene of the whole room. He's gonna sell it to tourists. And he's like, where's the Mona Lisa? It's not there. And they're like, oh, the photography has it. They're constantly taking paintings off the wall to be photographed, right? Cause it's like photographs have been existing for, like, the last 10 years, 20 years. But, like, they're constantly. Their technology's getting better, so they're taking photographs of all the works in the Louvre. So, like, it's probably with the photo studio. So they get in touch with the photographers at the Louvre, and they're like, you know, we don't have that painting. And they're like, wait, what? We don't have that painting. And they realize that the Mona Lisa has been missing for over 24 hours, and they have no idea where it is. So they shut the Louvre. All the. Like, everybody comes. They're like. They close it for a week. They're looking in every nook and cranny in the whole museum. It's 50 acres. The Lou, like, it has very few security guards. Also, they find in a stairwell, the frame and this glass thing, which has been taken off, like, seems, like, pretty easy. Like, someone knew what they were doing. They took it off. And the only account, eyewitness account they have is that a plumber was coming down the stairs on Monday, and there was a guy in a white smock, which is what all the employees and the artists wear, was, like, at the door to get out with the doorknob in his hand, but the door was locked. Like, he was trying. And he was like, I. The doorknob came off. I'm trying to get out. And, like, the plumber opened the door for him, and the guy left. And they found the doorknob, like, in a gutter. And, like, that's. They think that's the guy. That's all they know. And so the thing that happens, which is really the point of the thing that happens with technology is that this story that the Mona Lisa has been stolen from the Louvre, like, no one even noticed for. For a day. It just like hits the newspapers, which are everywhere. And like, millions of people are reading. And like, in addition to being the newspapers, it's like in the cabarets, there's a silent movie. Like, there's all these ridiculous songs, there's cartoons. Like, it's everywhere. And so basically it just turns into an enormous, salacious news story. Like, honestly, exactly how it is now breaking. Now an international manhunt underway after masked thieves stole priceless jewels from the most famous museum in the world, the Louvre.
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B
Yeah, it's very topical. I kind of assume that's why you responded when you did. Honestly.
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A
You mean like I wrote you back because you were like, the Louvre heist. Like, it's gotta have to do with this.
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B
Yeah, like, it would kind of tie into what. What just happened.
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A
Yeah, totally. Right. But it's like, is. It is very similar to that, but people are just like, extremely. People love an art crime. It's sort of like, you know, it's like a crime with no one's dead, but it's like a big deal. Like, they're sort of fun.
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B
I saw something that said the jewels that, that were recently stolen will probably be more popular now. Like, people, you know, if they do find them, they'll probably be more popular.
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A
Well, so this is exactly what happened, which is that. So it's all over the newspapers for days. Like, this image is now also just being put on the COVID of all these papers. So it's like, even if you've heard about it, everyone is seeing it, right? Everyone's talking about how important it is, how mysterious it is, you know, like, what did she know? Like, her smile, you know, so it's like it's just hyping it up. And like, as also with now like tons of conspiracy theories, one of the best ones is that it's JP Morgan because they're all like, very worried that Americans are like, coming to buy all the European French art. You know, Picasso gets questioned because he and his friend actually did help. Like, people were stealing stuff from the Louvre all the time that, like, wasn't ever found. And like, basically Picasso had ended up with some stolen African figurines that end up in one of his famous paintings. So, like, they bring them in for questioning. It's just like a free for all. And every day is like a good story about it, you know, but then like, the trail totally runs cold. How it heats back up when we come back. So it's 1913. The Mona Lisa has been missing for two years, and no one has any idea where it is. A massive investigation has turned up nothing. And then out of the blue, a lead, an art dealer in Italy gets, like, a letter from someone signed, like, Leonard that says, like, basically, I have something really good. You want to see it? And, like, he's like, this has. This person has to be kidding. Like, the person who stole the Mona Lisa is not, like, sending me a note, but he gets in touch with the head of the Uffizi, who's like, why not? Why not? See? Like, see what happens? So he writes him back and is like, okay, yeah, maybe we can make a deal. Like, why don't you bring it to Italy? And basically he does. So he goes to meet this guy who has an incredible mustache. His name, he's Italian. His name is Vincent Perugia. He was a carpenter who was employed at the Louvre. He helped make the case for the Mona Lisa. He was questioned by the police like, they were in his room. But, like, nothing. Whatever. He shows up in Italy and, like, brings both the man from the utsi and this dealer to his hotel room, opens up a trunk and pulls up the bottom of the trunk and, like, there is the Mona Lisa. And it's really the Mona Lisa. They identify it and then they get guy to let them take it to the UIT to, like, verify it. So he lets them take it to the Uiti, and then like, three hours later, the police knock on his door and he's like, wait. He's like, very surprised that he's been arrested because he's like, I'm bringing back an Italian cultural product that shouldn't have been in France to begin with. Like, I'm a nationalist hero. Like, you're all going to thank me. That's why he trusts them, because he's like, you're Italian, you'll take it. But instead the police come and arrest him.
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B
So he tries to make it sound like he's liberating this art.
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A
Yeah, that's his story. Like, I'm doing it for Italy. But, like, he probably also wanted the.
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B
Money, I would imagine. I mean, is it fair to say that he probably is able to sell it if it's not for the fact that there are pictures in newspapers now?
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A
Well, right, so it's a great. Right, so, like, it's very hard to sell a painting that's very famous, right? Because everybody knows what it is. Unless you have someone who's like, I want this for my living room. And I'm willing to pay so much money and no one will see it but me. It's like, how do you really sell a painting that's that famous? And yes, before telegrams and newspapers, like, maybe you could take it far enough away where they wouldn't know, you know, or not everybody would know. But that's definitely not true anymore. So he basically couldn't boost it. And he sort of was getting like. I think he just needed the money and like getting impatient. So he finally like raises his hand. So he gets a very short sentence, like nine months in jail. But then Mona Lisa basically now gets like a second burst of huge amount of publicity. So it's all in newspapers again.
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B
I mean, it's interesting. So I mean really, it's the fact that this guy stole it is what gives this thing a whole nother. Takes it to a whole nother level.
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A
Yeah, it's like it was involved in a scandal, but then there's like the final steps, which are basically that. Like in 1919. So this is four years after Duchamp puts the mustache on the Mona Lisa.
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D
The Mona Lisa with a mustache and a goatee. That was of course, a great iconoclastic gesture on my part and sacrilegious. Sacrilegious, blasphemous all you want.
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A
And like that sort of begins the thing where it's like, oh, the Mona Lisa is so famous. Everyone's just gonna like tweak all of art by like tweaking the Mona Lisa. So there's more of that. And then it's like basically it goes on tour in America in the 60s and like the Kennedys come and see it.
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D
It's Mona Lisa day in Washington in the West Statuary hall of the National Gallery of art. Nearly 2,000 first nighters, including the first lady, stunning in a long pink dress. See President Kennedy introduce the world's most famous painting to Americans.
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A
Then it goes to Japan, where they're also crazy about it. And also this like when merchandising of like museum gift shop stuff is happening, advertising agencies, like, you know, it starts to beat all these TV ads. Paint what you see, Leo. She got a lovely smile.
- [23:10]
B
This. Some Moana.
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D
What's this?
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B
It's a pint of Heineken.
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A
It just becomes the sort of like exemplar of what the most famous painting in the world would be.
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B
Yeah, it's almost a symbol of itself, right? It's like a symbol of great art. This is like what it is, you know?
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A
Yeah. Well, thank you Did I satisfactorily answer this question for you?
- [23:32]
B
Very much so, yeah. It's been around that. That old girl's been around the block. You know what I mean?
- [23:37]
A
Totally. Yeah. Thank you for listening to the show and for the question. It's been very fun chatting with you.
- [23:43]
B
You, too.
- [23:43]
A
Yeah.
- [23:44]
B
This was great. Mona Lisa, Mona Lisa men have named you. You're so like the lady with a mystic smile.
- [23:58]
A
This is Decoder Ring, and that was our first installment of Decoder Rings Back. If you want to hear future installments, the only way to do so is to sign up for Slate Plus. Decoder Rings Back will only be available to Slate plus members. Slate plus members are also meaningfully supporting the show. And if all the ads in this episode were bugging you, they get to hear the show without any ads, too. Please sign up@slate.com decoder+ or subscribe now from the Decoder Ring show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It matters to us. Please consider doing so. Thanks to Dustin Malik again for being our guinea pig. We will have all the sources that we use for this piece on our show page, but I want to acknowledge some that were particularly important. First is the work of the scholar Donald Sassoon, who has taken the question of how and why the Mona Lisa became so famous head on most extensively in his book Mona Lisa the History of the World's Most Famous Painting. And for the importance and details of the heist itself, there's Dorothy and Thomas Hubler's book, the Crimes of Paris. This episode was produced by Max Friedman. Decoder Ring is also produced by me, Katie shepherd, and Evan Chung. Our supervising producer, Merritt Jacob, is senior technical director. If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode or to call you back about, please email us at decodering@slate.com or give us a shout at 347-460-7281. We will be back in two weeks with a new episode.