The Mind Creative March 2014
The theft of the Mona Lisa from
the Louvre in Paris took place
in 1911. Although this historic
theft gave notoriety to the
masterminds
Eduardo
de
Valfierno
and
Vincenzo
Peruggia, the actual replicas of
the masterpiece was created
by the French painter Yves
Chaudron who created the
forgeries during the winter of
1910. Six of his replicas were
sent to the US before the theft and reputedly sold for $300,000
each. According to Valfierno's account released in 1932, Chaudron
retired to the countryside only months after the theft. He continued
to produce forgeries of other artists' work but never to the same
scale as his work related to the Mona Lisa theft. He was never
arrested or tried. In fact, his role in the theft was effectively unknown
during his lifetime.
With a career lasting over 30
years, Tetro was labelled by
the L.A. district attorney as
the “the single largest forger
of art works in America.”
Tetro was a master craftsman
who produced replicas of
great
masters
including
Rembrandt and Dali. He made
an enormous amount of
wealth from his works, owned
some of the most expensive
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