Yves Chaudron was a supposed
French master
art forger who is alleged to have copied images of
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...
's ''
Mona Lisa
The ''Mona Lisa'' ( ; it, Gioconda or ; french: Joconde ) is a Half length portrait, half-length portrait painting by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. Considered an archetypal masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, it has been described ...
'' as part of
Eduardo de Valfierno's famous 1911 ''Mona Lisa'' painting theft. In reality he may be a fictional character created by Karl Decker for an article that ran in a 1932 issue of the ''Saturday Evening Post'', and passed off as a real person. There is also very little evidence that Valfierno actually existed, or if he did, that he was involved in the theft of the Mona Lisa at all.
Theft of the Mona Lisa
![Mona Lisa stolen-1911](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/Mona_Lisa_stolen-1911.jpg)
Valfierno's account was relayed by reporter Karl Decker, in the ''Saturday Evening Post''s “Why and How the Mona Lisa Was Stolen,” June 25, 1932.' According to Decker, Valfierno had provided details of the theft in confidence; to be published only after his death.
[''The Lost Mona Lisa'']
by R. A. Scotti (Random House
Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...
, 2010)
According to that account, in 1910, Valfierno had conspired with Chaudron to steal the ''Mona Lisa'' and produce copies of the painting which would then be sold to private buyers as the genuine painting. The plan had been to sell each copy as the "original" while the location of the real painting was unknown.
Chaudron, "spent the winter of 1910 creating clones of Leonardo's great portrait" while Valfierno made arrangements to steal the real painting. In the early hours of 21 August 1911,
Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
employee
Vincenzo Peruggia
Vincenzo Peruggia (8 October 1881 8 October 1925) was an Italian museum worker, artist, and thief, most famous for stealing the ''Mona Lisa'' from the Louvre museum in Paris on 21 August 1911. and two accomplices carried the ''Mona Lisa'' out of the museum covered in a painter's smock.
[''The New Encyclopedia of American Scandal'']
by George C. Kohn ( Infobase Publishing, 2001)
Chaudron's copies
Decker asserts that six Chaudron copies had already been sent to the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
ahead of the theft and while the stolen original remained in
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
, Valfierno followed his fakes and sold each for up to 300,000.
''Leonardo. Ediz. inglese''
by Enrica Crispino (Giunti Editore, 2002) The original remained hidden for two years until Peruggia, presenting himself as Leonardo Vincenzo, tried to sell it in Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...
, Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
. A museum administrator there was suspicious, reported the attempted sale and Peruggia was arrested. The original ''Mona Lisa'' was returned to the Louvre in 1913.
More than 100 years later, none of these six paintings has ever surfaced, bringing into question if they ever in fact existed. Further, the only evidence that the "famed forger" Yves Chaudron even existed is Karl Decker's 1932 ''Saturday Evening Post'' article. There are no known photos of the man or relatives or any biographical details outside of this incident. None of his other forged works has ever come to light, and it is quite impossible to be a 'famed forger' if none of your forgeries is discovered. Decker's entire 1932 article may be a work of fiction that, much like forgeries in the art world, has fooled many who have read it.
Later life
According to Valfierno's account, the mysterious Chaudron retired to the countryside only months after the theft and the completion of the forgeries. He is said to have continued to produce forgeries of other artists' work , but never to the same scale as his work related to the ''Mona Lisa'' theft. Again, no works by Chaudron, forged or otherwise, have ever been located. As Valfierno's account was only released in 1932 (some years after the supposed death of Chaudron), there was no arrest or trail of the mysterious forger and his role in the theft was effectively unknown during his lifetime, only being revealed in the 1932 article.[ Yves Chaudron was most likely a creation of Karl Decker that fit well into a story of a criminal mastermind and his associates, that readers of the article assumed was genuine. His name still pops up in lists of the top forgers of the 20th century, despite there being no forged works of art found that can be attributed to anyone named Chaudron.
]
See also
*Art forgery
Art forgery is the creating and selling of works of art which are falsely credited to other, usually more famous artists. Art forgery can be extremely lucrative, but modern dating and analysis techniques have made the identification of forged art ...
*''Mona Lisa
The ''Mona Lisa'' ( ; it, Gioconda or ; french: Joconde ) is a Half length portrait, half-length portrait painting by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. Considered an archetypal masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, it has been described ...
''
*The Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
*Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...
*City of Death
''City of Death'' is the second serial of the seventeenth season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor. It was produced by the BBC ...
(a Doctor Who story about creating six ''Mona Lisa'' copies, then stealing the original in order to sell the copies to six buyers)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chaudron, Yves
Art forgers
20th-century French criminals
Mona Lisa
Year of birth missing
Year of death missing