WEBVTT - S4E11: Sophia Bush and the Mona Lisa Heist 0:00:01.080 --> 0:00:02.960 Here's the thing, and I bet you get this. When 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:05.440 you're an actor, people think you must be a good liar, 0:00:05.519 --> 0:00:08.239 and I'm like, no, I memorize other people's words. I 0:00:08.280 --> 0:00:10.680 can't come up with them on my own. I'm not 0:00:10.760 --> 0:00:12.080 like a liar on the fly. 0:00:12.640 --> 0:00:25.840 Yeah, I'm bad at that. 0:00:33.040 --> 0:00:36.080 Hey, there, I met Helms and Welcome to SNAPO, the 0:00:36.159 --> 0:00:40.360 show about history's greatest screw ups, or more specifically, the 0:00:40.400 --> 0:00:44.600 show where I lead my brilliant guests through some of 0:00:44.680 --> 0:00:48.519 the least brilliant moments in history. Today, I am joined 0:00:48.640 --> 0:00:51.160 by someone who wears a lot of hats. This woman 0:00:51.360 --> 0:00:53.800 is a powerhouse. You've seen her on the big screen, 0:00:54.120 --> 0:00:57.560 the small screen, and in your podcast feed with the 0:00:57.640 --> 0:01:04.600 stirring and thoughtful show in progress. She's an actress, an activist, producer, 0:01:04.720 --> 0:01:09.959 and all around troublemaker for justice. Please welcome Sophia Bush. 0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:14.000 I like that introduction, ed Helms. Can I It's like, 0:01:14.040 --> 0:01:15.759 I want a little recording of that I can pull 0:01:15.800 --> 0:01:17.319 out of my pocket when I go somewhere. 0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:20.720 Well, we're recording is the podcast? This is sad feel 0:01:20.800 --> 0:01:23.640 you can yeah, just feel free to use anytime you want. 0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:25.759 I'm going to admit to you now I'll be stealing 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:27.000 your audio. Thank you, sir. 0:01:27.240 --> 0:01:30.400 I was trying to think about I feel like I've 0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:32.880 known you a long long time, but then I couldn't 0:01:32.920 --> 0:01:37.160 place our the sort of origin of our connection. I 0:01:37.240 --> 0:01:39.360 think it was represent us. Did we need to ed 0:01:39.480 --> 0:01:42.080 represent us? Event only like way. 0:01:41.840 --> 0:01:46.520 Back gosh, I think you're right, yeah, yeah, I didn't 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:49.320 know if it was do something or like I knew 0:01:49.320 --> 0:01:53.840 we were in the mix on the let's inject hope 0:01:53.880 --> 0:01:57.440 into working on society's problems because everyone always thinks that's 0:01:57.440 --> 0:01:59.240 a drag, and it's like, no, it's actually pretty cool. 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:02.640 Were just before we started recording, we were talking about 0:02:02.720 --> 0:02:04.960 fly fishing, which I want to get back to. But 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:08.440 I just have a more sort of like meaty question 0:02:08.520 --> 0:02:12.800 for you, because I really love how you have like 0:02:13.000 --> 0:02:16.320 leveraged your platform for meaningful impact in the world. 0:02:17.320 --> 0:02:17.799 Thanks. 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:21.080 I am a voter times up. Of course, you know 0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:26.720 your your your climate work, and I'm just curious. You 0:02:26.760 --> 0:02:30.160 know a lot of people with high profile kind of 0:02:30.200 --> 0:02:33.799 dip into activism here and there. You've done much more 0:02:33.840 --> 0:02:37.480 than dipping in, like you're you're fully engaged, and I'm 0:02:37.520 --> 0:02:44.560 curious how those particular issues emerged for you. Was that. 0:02:44.960 --> 0:02:47.200 Was it sort of strategic about where you could make 0:02:47.360 --> 0:02:50.000 the most impact or was it more visceral like this, 0:02:50.200 --> 0:02:52.800 These are things I feel in my gut, and I 0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:54.160 got to speak up about this. 0:02:55.080 --> 0:03:00.600 Yeah, it's definitely definitely option B and to choose your adventure. 0:03:01.440 --> 0:03:04.480 I The irony is you're like, was it strategic? I 0:03:04.480 --> 0:03:06.880 think it was probably the most unstrategic thing I could do. 0:03:07.000 --> 0:03:09.080 For most of my career, my whole team has been like, 0:03:09.080 --> 0:03:11.880 please shut up about the just can you like tone 0:03:11.919 --> 0:03:14.840 it down? Could you just pick a charity, go to 0:03:14.919 --> 0:03:18.000 the gala, like, write a check once in a while. 0:03:18.080 --> 0:03:22.360 Why do you have to be so agitating to the system. 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:24.520 And I'm like, because the system needs to be agitated. 0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:29.440 It's a shitty system. I the way I have come 0:03:29.480 --> 0:03:32.000 to understand this thing about myself, and I think it's 0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:34.800 been helpful. One of my best friends is a really 0:03:34.840 --> 0:03:38.120 brilliant writer. His name's Jedediah Jenkins, and he said something 0:03:38.160 --> 0:03:40.200 to me years ago. He said, we have a lot 0:03:40.200 --> 0:03:44.200 of friends that work in creative spaces, and a lot 0:03:44.200 --> 0:03:48.120 of our friends who are creatives are also concerned citizens. 0:03:48.160 --> 0:03:50.120 You know, he goes, but You're I think you're the 0:03:50.160 --> 0:03:52.840 only person I know who pretend who's a full time activist, 0:03:52.880 --> 0:03:55.680 who pretends to be a full time actor, Like, I 0:03:55.680 --> 0:03:58.240 feel like you kind of act just so you can 0:03:58.360 --> 0:04:02.560 maintain the reach. And I used to think that was true. 0:04:02.560 --> 0:04:04.640 And I think what I've realized over the last couple 0:04:04.600 --> 0:04:09.120 of years is the spectrum of my experience as a 0:04:09.160 --> 0:04:14.160 person needs both My work, whether it's like you know, 0:04:14.320 --> 0:04:17.360 jumping in to do an improv show or a movie 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:22.880 is so sustaining to me and like my creative gas tank. 0:04:24.080 --> 0:04:29.320 But the activism that is for everybody else, for community, 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:34.520 Like that's my calling. It's like like like painters can't 0:04:34.560 --> 0:04:39.839 not paint, Yeah, writers can't not write. I cannot, even 0:04:39.880 --> 0:04:43.839 despite great advice at times, keep my mouth shut about 0:04:44.000 --> 0:04:47.839 things that I know are wrong and ways we could 0:04:47.880 --> 0:04:50.680 be better, and how the whole point of being on 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:54.640 this planet is to like be neighbors with people. I 0:04:55.360 --> 0:04:56.320 can't shut my mouth. 0:04:56.680 --> 0:04:59.080 No, that's incredible. I could just like go down this 0:04:59.160 --> 0:05:02.039 rabbit hole for let me just ask you quickly and 0:05:02.120 --> 0:05:04.680 let's let's keep this far short. What do you love 0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:06.960 about fly fishing? I have an answer to this, but 0:05:07.000 --> 0:05:09.839 what is your what is it you love about it? 0:05:09.920 --> 0:05:14.680 Fly fishing for me is in that kind of cannon 0:05:14.800 --> 0:05:17.120 of the American West. And to be clear, and like 0:05:17.160 --> 0:05:19.119 I'm sure people will tell me I'm cringe or whatever. 0:05:19.120 --> 0:05:23.560 I'm like like I am. I am a horse girl 0:05:23.560 --> 0:05:26.920 at heart. Like I'm never happier than when I'm out 0:05:26.960 --> 0:05:30.919 on horseback, out on empty you know, land or forests 0:05:31.000 --> 0:05:35.040 or whatever. And fly fishing is that same kind of beautiful, 0:05:35.240 --> 0:05:40.400 meditative experience in the land. It's so grounding to me. 0:05:41.920 --> 0:05:47.320 And oh, I just I think it's magic totally. And 0:05:47.360 --> 0:05:50.200 I have to say, like, the chakiest, gayest trip I've 0:05:50.240 --> 0:05:53.120 ever taken was taking five of my girlfriends fly fishing 0:05:53.200 --> 0:05:55.240 years ago, and I look back at the photos and 0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:59.680 I'm like a clue. It was so cool and it's like, 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:03.120 I don't know, I am passionate about it, and I'm 0:06:03.160 --> 0:06:08.720 also really passionate about getting more women out into the outdoors, 0:06:08.760 --> 0:06:11.479 into spaces where there are often less of us, but 0:06:12.120 --> 0:06:15.200 where we're we're actually quite good caster. 0:06:15.440 --> 0:06:17.839 All right, let's get into this snap. But we have 0:06:17.839 --> 0:06:19.120 a really fun one today. 0:06:19.279 --> 0:06:21.680 What do you got for me? It's very exciting for me. 0:06:21.720 --> 0:06:23.960 I'm nervous and excited all at the same time. 0:06:24.240 --> 0:06:28.520 So this is a great, early and very literal example 0:06:28.600 --> 0:06:31.800 of there is no such thing as bad press. We 0:06:31.839 --> 0:06:42.120 are going to dig into the infamous Mona Lisa. Heist. Oh, 0:06:42.240 --> 0:06:45.200 we begin our tale. In France, it's August twenty first, 0:06:45.400 --> 0:06:50.120 nineteen eleven, a Tuesday, to be precise. A local artist 0:06:50.160 --> 0:06:54.000 by the name of Louis Berude has decided to escape 0:06:54.040 --> 0:06:57.480 the sweltering August Parisian heat and peruse a few of 0:06:57.480 --> 0:07:00.760 his favorite works at a local museum. One of the 0:07:00.760 --> 0:07:03.800 pieces he likes to check out was an oil painting 0:07:03.839 --> 0:07:08.200 on a poplar wood panel that many lovingly called La Gioconda. 0:07:09.520 --> 0:07:15.840 It utilized a stunning innovative technique called svumto a hazy effect, 0:07:15.920 --> 0:07:20.240 blending colors and tones with subtle precision. But when Brud 0:07:20.600 --> 0:07:25.280 arrived at Lagiaconda's normal hanging spot in the museum, she 0:07:25.440 --> 0:07:26.000 wasn't there. 0:07:26.920 --> 0:07:27.920 She was gone. 0:07:28.120 --> 0:07:30.280 She was gone. Now this may not feel like such 0:07:30.320 --> 0:07:34.680 a big deal at first, but let's just be clear. 0:07:34.760 --> 0:07:40.360 Lagiaconda is also known by her other name, the Mona Lisa. 0:07:40.520 --> 0:07:43.480 We're talking about the Mona Lisa, and we actually have 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:45.560 a photo. Let's let's get up that photo of the 0:07:45.560 --> 0:07:51.560 Mona Lisa. There she is hello, lady, Hello darling. Yes, 0:07:51.880 --> 0:07:52.800 isn't she incredible? 0:07:53.440 --> 0:07:55.880 She really is quite stunning. 0:07:56.040 --> 0:08:01.280 She has achieved this legendary status in large, as we'll hear, 0:08:01.480 --> 0:08:05.520 because of this famous heist, but she deserves it too, 0:08:05.760 --> 0:08:07.480 and she's truly a masterpiece. 0:08:07.720 --> 0:08:08.800 She's so luminous. 0:08:08.840 --> 0:08:09.240 Look at her. 0:08:09.240 --> 0:08:10.800 She looks like she swallowed a light bulb. 0:08:10.960 --> 0:08:13.720 Yes, let's just get a few facts out. Let's get 0:08:13.720 --> 0:08:16.520 into the numbers of the Mona Lisa for a quick second. 0:08:16.600 --> 0:08:19.880 Here's some stats. She's roughly thirty inches tall and twenty 0:08:19.920 --> 0:08:24.080 one inches wide, which is not large. That's like the 0:08:24.160 --> 0:08:27.600 average size of your Led Zeppelin poster in a college 0:08:27.640 --> 0:08:28.160 dorm room. 0:08:28.400 --> 0:08:29.800 She's just like a little gal. 0:08:30.200 --> 0:08:31.360 He's right, she's a little gal. 0:08:31.600 --> 0:08:32.240 She's like a. 0:08:32.160 --> 0:08:34.440 Concert poster you have framed in your kitchen. 0:08:34.520 --> 0:08:37.920 There you go. Mona Lisa's eyes famously follow the viewer. 0:08:37.960 --> 0:08:42.640 Thanks to Da Vinci's mastery of perspective. Psychologists estimate this 0:08:42.760 --> 0:08:46.000 smile appears to shift depending on where your eyes land. 0:08:46.320 --> 0:08:49.199 A two thousand and five University of Amsterdam study found 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:52.960 eighty three percent of viewers interpret her as happy, nine 0:08:53.040 --> 0:08:59.480 percent disgusted, six percent fearful, and two percent angry. I 0:08:59.520 --> 0:08:59.920 love that. 0:09:00.280 --> 0:09:02.200 I've never thought any of those things. 0:09:02.360 --> 0:09:06.440 So on that morning, Louis Beerude asked a guard where 0:09:06.559 --> 0:09:10.080 has the Mona Lisa gone? And the guard wasn't particularly concerned. 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:12.240 He assumed it had just been taken out by a 0:09:12.280 --> 0:09:15.760 staff photographer who was known to remove various paintings to 0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:19.280 take pictures of them, and then sometimes forget to return 0:09:19.320 --> 0:09:22.640 them right away. But as the hours ticked by and 0:09:22.679 --> 0:09:26.560 the photographer swore he didn't have it, panic started to 0:09:26.840 --> 0:09:30.079 set in. By mid afternoon, around three pm, the louver 0:09:30.280 --> 0:09:33.160 quietly cleared out all the tourists and staff under the 0:09:33.160 --> 0:09:37.360 pretense of a burst water pipe, not true. Meanwhile, they 0:09:37.360 --> 0:09:41.040 called in about sixty detectives to comb through the museum's 0:09:41.240 --> 0:09:44.960 endless corridors and hidden corners, which is no small feet 0:09:45.000 --> 0:09:48.760 because the louver is huge. If you lay it out 0:09:48.800 --> 0:09:50.680 all of its halls and galleries in a straight line, 0:09:50.679 --> 0:09:54.280 it would be nearly nine miles, which is crazy. Have 0:09:54.320 --> 0:09:56.080 you ever been to the Louver? Have you seen the 0:09:56.120 --> 0:09:57.920 Mona Lisa in person? I have? 0:09:58.400 --> 0:10:00.400 Can I actually tell you the coolest thing that's ever 0:10:00.440 --> 0:10:05.079 happened to me? Of no, it's like of no doing 0:10:05.120 --> 0:10:09.640 of my own so there are very There are only 0:10:09.720 --> 0:10:15.439 five modern artists, like you know, our era of modernity 0:10:16.240 --> 0:10:20.440 who have installations, permanent installations in the Louver. And one 0:10:20.440 --> 0:10:22.439 of them happens to be a dear friend of mine 0:10:23.200 --> 0:10:30.320 who is like an incredibly exceptional engineer and artist who 0:10:30.360 --> 0:10:35.200 makes moving sculptures, and a few years ago when he 0:10:35.320 --> 0:10:40.200 was selected to be the artist of our generation with 0:10:40.320 --> 0:10:45.240 a permanent installation, I got to go on installation day 0:10:45.280 --> 0:10:47.600 because I happened to be in France because I was 0:10:47.640 --> 0:10:50.000 working and the Louver was closed. 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:52.480 You've got a backstage pass to the louver. 0:10:52.960 --> 0:10:57.480 Yes, I got to be there for the day, you know, 0:10:57.520 --> 0:11:00.040 and I was taking photographs and like so excited I 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:04.199 did for him and his family. And then the curator said, 0:11:04.600 --> 0:11:08.480 would everyone, like, you know, quietly, would everyone like thirty 0:11:08.520 --> 0:11:11.480 minutes to go see a few of our most famous exhibitions. 0:11:11.800 --> 0:11:13.520 And they took us to see them on a lisa, 0:11:14.360 --> 0:11:19.080 no ropes, no lines, no humans, and it was like 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:21.960 it actually made me emotional. I got a little weepy. Yeah, 0:11:22.000 --> 0:11:24.920 it felt like a not even like a once in 0:11:25.000 --> 0:11:27.120 a lifetime, it was like a once in a generation 0:11:27.400 --> 0:11:31.360 kind of experience. And I was like, wow, I'm this 0:11:31.440 --> 0:11:32.920 is like, maybe one of the coolest things that will 0:11:32.960 --> 0:11:34.240 ever happen to me in my life. 0:11:34.280 --> 0:11:37.960 That's that is incredibly cool. I went to the Louver. 0:11:39.720 --> 0:11:42.200 I don't know, it was probably seven or eight years ago. 0:11:42.800 --> 0:11:45.679 I've been a few times, but the last visit I 0:11:45.840 --> 0:11:47.880 just like, I'm going to go by myself. I love 0:11:47.960 --> 0:11:50.520 going to museums by myself because half the time in 0:11:50.559 --> 0:11:53.320 a museum you're either waiting for your friends or family 0:11:53.440 --> 0:11:56.280 or you're looking for them or whatever. And this was 0:11:56.360 --> 0:11:58.800 so nice. And then I remember getting I was like, 0:11:59.360 --> 0:12:01.720 I gotta check in on Mona, right, I gotta just 0:12:01.720 --> 0:12:04.360 give her a little hello. And I get in there 0:12:04.360 --> 0:12:08.080 and it's the exact opposite of what you're saying. It 0:12:08.240 --> 0:12:13.920 was so crowded and full of people in this huge hall, 0:12:14.000 --> 0:12:16.720 and like we were saying before, it's small, like it's 0:12:16.800 --> 0:12:20.439 not a big painting, and they're trying to shuffle people through. 0:12:20.800 --> 0:12:22.600 But I just remember standing. I was probably like a 0:12:22.600 --> 0:12:25.480 couple like one hundred feet back, and I just kind 0:12:25.480 --> 0:12:28.240 of was like, Hey, Mona, good to see you. We're 0:12:28.240 --> 0:12:30.440 gonna make sure we're in Paris at the same time 0:12:30.600 --> 0:12:33.840 soon so that you can give me like a backstage tour. 0:12:34.360 --> 0:12:36.760 I will absolutely ask if we can go back. 0:12:36.760 --> 0:12:40.160 All right, So back into the story. After an hour 0:12:40.200 --> 0:12:44.680 of frantic searching, the detectives uncovered an empty glass frame 0:12:45.360 --> 0:12:50.360 in a service stairwell. It was La Gioconda's frame. She 0:12:50.480 --> 0:12:52.440 had seemingly vanished into thin air. 0:12:52.679 --> 0:12:54.960 And just like that, bad news fairs. 0:12:55.240 --> 0:13:00.480 Yeah, a massive international scandal erupted Mona's gentle smirk, peppered 0:13:00.520 --> 0:13:04.240 the front pages of newspapers around the globe. And here's 0:13:04.240 --> 0:13:06.920 the thing. At the time, the Mona Lisa was certainly 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:12.600 considered a masterpiece. Leonardo da Vinci really didn't was not prolific. 0:13:12.720 --> 0:13:16.880 I mean, I think he had only like twenty five ish, 0:13:17.040 --> 0:13:19.600 I don't know the exact number, but a small number 0:13:19.640 --> 0:13:24.000 of paintings, and so this was it was definitely it 0:13:24.040 --> 0:13:27.079 had incredible value and was a masterpiece. But it wasn't 0:13:27.120 --> 0:13:30.960 that well known. It wasn't especially outside of France. But 0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:34.640 almost overnight she just was thrust into the cultural spotlight 0:13:34.760 --> 0:13:39.800 and became the most famous painting in the entire world. 0:13:41.800 --> 0:13:44.160 You and I know a little bit about fame. Was 0:13:44.200 --> 0:13:49.880 your transition into a famous person sudden or gradual? Has 0:13:49.920 --> 0:13:51.160 it been? Was it difficult? 0:13:51.960 --> 0:13:57.880 Ah. The phrase that comes to mind is a baptism 0:13:57.920 --> 0:14:00.160 by fire. Sure did it feel that way for you? 0:14:00.760 --> 0:14:03.600 Yeah, well, there's certainly these moments where you're just like, 0:14:03.640 --> 0:14:06.839 oh my god, like what just happened to reality? It's 0:14:06.880 --> 0:14:07.960 it's like so different. 0:14:08.040 --> 0:14:11.360 Yeah, I mean, certainly it was a shocking experience for 0:14:11.440 --> 0:14:14.439 all of us who worked together on One Tree Hill, 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:17.200 which was my first like a regular gig on a 0:14:17.240 --> 0:14:20.800 TV show. I think for me it was especially arresting 0:14:20.920 --> 0:14:25.640 because I had gone to an all girls, like super 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:28.480 nerdy prep school. I know, you're shocked when I'm talking 0:14:28.520 --> 0:14:33.600 about like global systems of oppression. You're like, gee, I 0:14:33.920 --> 0:14:37.680 there were fifty five girls in my graduating class. Like, 0:14:37.760 --> 0:14:41.560 I had no kind of experience with the world outside 0:14:41.760 --> 0:14:48.360 of gorgeous academia. And I'm so grateful for it. My 0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:53.040 passion for learning, my obsession with knowledge, the way I 0:14:53.080 --> 0:14:55.920 was encouraged, especially in science, which so many girls are not. 0:14:57.240 --> 0:15:00.800 I'm so grateful for it. But I did that. Then 0:15:00.840 --> 0:15:03.680 I went to college for three years and was literally 0:15:03.680 --> 0:15:07.960 a philanthropy chair like Nerd all the way through, kind 0:15:07.960 --> 0:15:10.600 of trying to get my bearings. Sure, and to be clear, 0:15:10.680 --> 0:15:12.920 I started working on my first TV show in two 0:15:12.920 --> 0:15:14.960 thousand and three, So like this was the era that 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:18.560 literally we drove Britney spears to madness. Like the press 0:15:18.600 --> 0:15:22.480 was not good to women in the early aughts. It 0:15:22.600 --> 0:15:25.840 called everyone fat, it called everyone's sluts. It was just 0:15:25.960 --> 0:15:29.040 it was horrible and to like put a hat on 0:15:29.080 --> 0:15:32.360 a hat. Not only am I working on a teen 0:15:32.480 --> 0:15:36.640 TV show which is high drama, all sexy, all the 0:15:36.680 --> 0:15:40.400 things I'd literally never experienced, but I'm playing the like 0:15:40.800 --> 0:15:43.320 captain of the cheer squad who's a vixen, And. 0:15:43.280 --> 0:15:44.560 I'm like, what is a vixen? 0:15:45.320 --> 0:15:49.000 Like I I like, I read the news for fun. 0:15:49.080 --> 0:15:50.160 What are we doing right? 0:15:50.360 --> 0:15:54.760 And so it was really weird for me because I 0:15:54.920 --> 0:15:58.160 just didn't like, I look back at photos and I 0:15:58.160 --> 0:16:00.000 feel like I can like see the goog behind my ears, 0:16:00.200 --> 0:16:03.360 like I had just hatched and I didn't know anything. 0:16:03.480 --> 0:16:06.000 I didn't know that a journalist could ask you a 0:16:06.080 --> 0:16:07.640 question and you didn't have to answer it. 0:16:07.720 --> 0:16:09.480 I now like to say, when I get asked a 0:16:09.560 --> 0:16:11.320 question I don't want to answer, I just say pass, 0:16:13.440 --> 0:16:15.880 which is really fun because reporters are like, wait, what 0:16:16.560 --> 0:16:20.360 you can't pass? Next? Yeah? Just next question. They're like, yeah, 0:16:20.400 --> 0:16:22.840 you can't pass, Like, yeah I can. I'm passing on 0:16:22.960 --> 0:16:26.560 your question. Yeah, instead I'm doing, oh my god, use that, 0:16:26.560 --> 0:16:27.720 by the way, pass it around. 0:16:27.920 --> 0:16:32.040 I will say, like, given what that journey was, like, 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:36.200 I'm I'm also kind of really proud of myself. I'm 0:16:36.200 --> 0:16:37.640 like the fact that I'm not like sitting in the 0:16:37.640 --> 0:16:40.480 corner chewing my hair feels like a fucking miracle. So 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:44.000 I think we did good. I don't know, Amen, how 0:16:44.040 --> 0:16:47.440 old were you when things really like exploded in your career. 0:16:47.720 --> 0:16:50.280 I was an adult, Like, I have very little to 0:16:50.320 --> 0:16:52.600 complain about. I was an adult, but I also matured 0:16:52.680 --> 0:16:56.480 very late as a human being. I was. I was 0:16:56.520 --> 0:16:58.680 an adult by the numbers, but I was still very 0:16:58.760 --> 0:17:01.440 much a child I was. I really appreciate that I 0:17:01.520 --> 0:17:04.280 was twenty eight when I got on The Daily Show. 0:17:04.359 --> 0:17:07.080 But that's kind of like what we called toy fame 0:17:07.200 --> 0:17:10.320 because it was basic cable and it was like, and 0:17:10.760 --> 0:17:13.320 you know, it grew while I was on the show, 0:17:13.840 --> 0:17:18.000 but it was it wasn't you know. I wasn't getting 0:17:18.000 --> 0:17:21.879 like chased by reporters or anything or tabloids. Yeah, but 0:17:21.960 --> 0:17:26.359 then the office then sort of kicked things up a 0:17:26.400 --> 0:17:28.960 major notch, and then of course the hangover. It was 0:17:29.000 --> 0:17:31.520 just like, oh God, wow, here you go. Here we are. 0:17:31.680 --> 0:17:32.960 This is like a whole new thing. 0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:36.119 But here's the thing. It never ceases being weird. 0:17:36.320 --> 0:17:38.320 No, it's always weird, because. 0:17:38.400 --> 0:17:43.360 Like I am an adult and it's still so weird. 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:48.000 Let's take a trip back to the fifteen hundreds. 0:17:48.359 --> 0:17:48.720 Hit me. 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:52.920 One of the greatest Renaissance artists, Leonardo da Vinci, painted 0:17:52.920 --> 0:17:56.200 the Mona Lisa between fifteen oh three and fifteen oh six. 0:17:56.640 --> 0:18:00.560 Now why why did he paint this, this variouscial painting. 0:18:00.560 --> 0:18:06.080 Well because wealthy Florentine merchant Francesco del Giocondo commissioned Da 0:18:06.119 --> 0:18:12.439 Vinci to paint a portrait of his wife, Lisa Gerandini. Giocondo, 0:18:12.520 --> 0:18:17.680 also the source of the painting's Italian nickname La Gioconda 0:18:19.280 --> 0:18:23.080 or in French, la jaconde. The literal translation of that 0:18:23.280 --> 0:18:26.159 is the joyful one or the happy woman, which is 0:18:26.200 --> 0:18:31.640 a play on both her married name Giocondo and and 0:18:31.680 --> 0:18:35.199 her expression in the painting. Francesco never actually paid for 0:18:35.280 --> 0:18:37.720 the painting, so Da Vinci held on to it and 0:18:37.760 --> 0:18:40.040 wound up taking it with him when he moved to 0:18:40.200 --> 0:18:44.000 France in fifteen sixteen. At the request of King Francois 0:18:44.119 --> 0:18:48.080 the first. This is not fact per se, but this 0:18:48.240 --> 0:18:52.040 is generally the historian's consensus. It's kind of the closest 0:18:52.080 --> 0:18:57.720 we can get. According to the Louvers records, King Francoise 0:18:59.160 --> 0:19:02.800 was enamored with the work and officially purchased the Mona 0:19:02.800 --> 0:19:06.280 Lisa from Da Vinci in fifteen eighteen. Da Vinci would 0:19:06.280 --> 0:19:09.280 sadly pass away a short while later in fifteen nineteen. 0:19:09.359 --> 0:19:12.119 He was sixty seven years old, which is like pretty 0:19:12.200 --> 0:19:15.080 ripe for that time period. Yeah, so this is when 0:19:15.119 --> 0:19:17.520 mon Lisa sort of started bouncing around. She would move 0:19:17.600 --> 0:19:20.960 from French leader to French leader, allegedly sitting in King Francois, 0:19:21.840 --> 0:19:26.960 King Francis's bathroom for a short stant, then onto the 0:19:27.160 --> 0:19:31.680 fontine Bleau Palace. Later, Louis the fourteenth would place her 0:19:31.760 --> 0:19:35.800 at the Palace of Versailles, and then Napoleon would keep 0:19:35.840 --> 0:19:40.760 her in his own private bedchambers. How intimate apparently he 0:19:40.840 --> 0:19:43.800 referred to her. He referred to her as the quote 0:19:44.160 --> 0:19:48.160 Sphinx of the occident. I think this is really evidence 0:19:48.280 --> 0:19:53.520 of the spell that this painting can cast on people. 0:19:53.800 --> 0:19:56.600 That she wasn't just hung in a hall somewhere she 0:19:56.720 --> 0:20:00.959 was like in private quarters for people intimate. Mona Lisa 0:20:01.119 --> 0:20:04.440 was established as part of the French Royal collection eventually 0:20:04.600 --> 0:20:06.560 and was transferred to the Louver. 0:20:06.600 --> 0:20:12.320 Accordingly, question, yeah, question, professor, Yeah, who transferred her to 0:20:12.359 --> 0:20:14.080 the French collection? 0:20:14.520 --> 0:20:17.480 Like there was a moment. That's a great question, and 0:20:17.760 --> 0:20:19.919 I don't know the precise answer, but there was a 0:20:19.920 --> 0:20:27.639 moment where the royal collection was in the late seventeen hundreds, 0:20:28.240 --> 0:20:31.479 the Royal collection was made public. It was made to 0:20:31.520 --> 0:20:36.640 be sort of owned by the French people, and that's 0:20:36.680 --> 0:20:39.439 when a lot of that art made it into the Louver, 0:20:40.400 --> 0:20:43.560 which is Yeah, So the Louver first began showing the 0:20:43.560 --> 0:20:47.359 Mona Lisa on public display in eighteen oh four. Fast 0:20:47.400 --> 0:20:51.040 forward about a century and the Mona Lisa belonged to 0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:54.879 the people of France, sitting comfortably in the salon carre 0:20:55.800 --> 0:21:00.800 of the Louver along with various other masterpieces. This is 0:21:00.840 --> 0:21:03.280 before it was it got its own sort of gallery. 0:21:03.960 --> 0:21:09.080 But one former employee of the Louver believed that maybe 0:21:09.119 --> 0:21:10.960 she belonged elsewhere. 0:21:13.160 --> 0:21:15.560 Don't done, Yeah, you need the law and order like 0:21:15.680 --> 0:21:16.480 bumpo done. 0:21:16.520 --> 0:21:22.919 Now we get into the height. So we're back in 0:21:23.000 --> 0:21:27.800 nineteen eleven, and the heist of the twentieth century was 0:21:27.960 --> 0:21:32.760 all like Gray Poupon. So who took the Mona Lisa? Well? 0:21:33.119 --> 0:21:36.600 Was it an international crime syndicate? Was it Napoleon's ghost 0:21:36.960 --> 0:21:40.240 desperate for some new bedroom decorps? Was it a time 0:21:40.320 --> 0:21:44.440 traveling banksy? Perhaps No, it is none of the above. No, no, 0:21:44.480 --> 0:21:49.040 but yeah, and now there is a swarm of detectives, 0:21:49.160 --> 0:21:53.000 sixty some odd detectives, following a myriad of leads, and 0:21:54.320 --> 0:21:56.800 all the while she is actually actually just a few 0:21:56.840 --> 0:21:59.639 blocks over from the Louver, resting in a trunk with 0:21:59.680 --> 0:22:05.240 a fall bottom, owned by a man named Vincenzo Perugia. 0:22:05.720 --> 0:22:08.080 I think we have a photo of Vincenzo here. Let's 0:22:08.119 --> 0:22:09.160 take a look at this man. 0:22:09.800 --> 0:22:10.320 Look at him. 0:22:10.359 --> 0:22:14.760 A literal mustache twirl, Yeah, yeah, a little bit of 0:22:14.800 --> 0:22:18.680 a yeah. I mean, he's he's he's got that energy. 0:22:18.800 --> 0:22:24.280 He's Italian. He's an Italian immigrant and living in Paris, 0:22:24.280 --> 0:22:28.520 something of a handyman, and he had been employed at 0:22:28.520 --> 0:22:29.040 the Louver. 0:22:30.000 --> 0:22:30.520 Interesting. 0:22:31.000 --> 0:22:33.919 There are various reports of how the act of the 0:22:34.000 --> 0:22:37.080 heist actually went down, but all told, it was quite seamless. 0:22:37.160 --> 0:22:43.320 Perugia had been employed by the louver and and in fact, 0:22:43.520 --> 0:22:46.159 in one of his duties, he had helped construct the 0:22:46.200 --> 0:22:49.880 glass case that held the Mona Lisa, so he knew 0:22:49.880 --> 0:22:52.680 exactly how it sort of came together and came apart, 0:22:54.119 --> 0:22:58.160 and precisely how to remove her quite carefully. Now interesting 0:22:58.200 --> 0:23:03.000 side note, he apparently suffered a lot of discrimination as 0:23:03.000 --> 0:23:07.040 an Italian immigrant in France and had a bit of 0:23:07.040 --> 0:23:13.160 a grudge against French society, which he will claim played 0:23:13.240 --> 0:23:17.520 into his actions. And as we'll learn later, on Monday 0:23:17.560 --> 0:23:21.679 August twenty first, nineteen eleven, Perugia entered the museum at 0:23:21.680 --> 0:23:24.480 a time when it was only open to staff mondays 0:23:24.520 --> 0:23:27.399 were cleaning days. Now some reports say he actually hid 0:23:27.520 --> 0:23:30.320 the night before in a supply closet and then e 0:23:30.400 --> 0:23:34.000 merged on that Monday morning. In any case, he was 0:23:34.040 --> 0:23:37.400 wearing a workman's smock, so kind of, you know, fit 0:23:37.480 --> 0:23:41.400 in with the staff. He snuck into the hall removed 0:23:41.720 --> 0:23:47.440