In collaboration with the Miami Beach Film Society and the Miami Beach Cinematheque, the Italian Film Festival presents Joe Medeiros The Missing Piece
The story goes that in 1911 an Italian glass worker named Vincenzo Peruggia stole the famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci and kept it in hiding for something like 2 years. The crime confounded the Parisian police and created a bit of a media circus throughout Europe. Eventually, Peruggia was caught in Italy with the painting remarkably undamaged. Many in Italy considered him a hero for bringing the painting “home.” But as Medeiros points out, the Mona Lisa was legally in Paris to begin with, unlike other works of art that may have come to the Louvre under questionable circumstances. Medeiros, a long-time writer for “The Tonight Show,” knows that just a factual accounting of a historical theft does not a good documentary make. Medeiros wants to know why Peruggia committed the theft. Was it for spite? Was it for money? Or was Peruggia motivated by patriotism? Watching Medeiros grapple with these questions is fascinating entertainment.

Ticket prices are $10 or $9 students/seniors or $8 MBC and Italian Film Festival Members and can be purchased online by clicking on the Official Web Site link above.