Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece Mona Lisa became a global icon when she was stolen by Vincenzo Peruggia. This is not about fame as that would be Leo, Sun and appearances on the 5th house stage. She is an icon. Icons transend fame into divinity and that is Pisces, Neptune and the 12th house. Icons are usually religious art meant to glimpse the sacred.
The kidnapping was simple. Peruggia entered the Louvre through a work entrance dressed in a worker’s smock. His intention was to steal a piece of Italian art and repatriate it. He walked to the salon and chose a painting then. She is small so he chose her, lifted her off the wall, and took her into a service entrance. There were several student canvases there and he hid her among them while he went downstairs to see if they could leave. The door at the bottom was locked and he was seen by another worker but he didn’t have the painting. He went back upstairs removed her from her frame and then put his smock over her and left by the door he had come in. He kept her in Paris in his home for two more years and then took her to Italy in a crate with a hollow bottom. When he tried to collect his ransom for her, he was arrested and she was returned to France.
The glyph of Persephone (♇⚳) is present. Persephone (Prosephina) is the daughter of Ceres and Jupiter. She was kidnapped by Pluto taken to hell and only returned to her mother for part of the year after a custody battle. This indicates the theft is actually a kidnapping. The combination of these two creates the possession (Taurus) obsession (Scorpio) axis.
Discovering the astrology behind this event, first we must unravel the planetary players. Vincenzo Peruggia is the one taking action (1st house, Mars) and therefore he is represented by the ruler of the Ascendant, 25° Cancer Vesta. His partner is the Mona Lisa and she is represented by the ruler of the Descendant, 22° Cancer Neptune. The Sabian symbols show the theft in an interesting way. Peruggia is “a dark shadow or mantle thrown suddenly over the right shoulder” and Mona Lisa is “a woman awaiting a sailboat”. Astrology had brought these two together in the chart. Vesta and Neptune are conjunct but in different houses at the beginning of the theft and together in the same house, the 10th at the end of the theft. Behind the Mona Lisa Neptune is a minor grand trine (blue triangle) showing the assistance of Saturn-Mars-Pallas and Mercury focusing on Neptune. This kind of connection seems to indicate that Mona Lisa was also the Saturn-Mars-Pallas in the 9th house going on a journey and the Mercury who, over the course of the theft, changes from the 1st house into the 12th. She disappears into the 12th.
Vincenzo Peruggia, as Vesta, is dressed as a workman. Servants, workman and all Virgoan types are liminal. Virgo has the very powerful skill of liminality. Betwixt and between. They are masters of the gate. Mutable earth. Moving earth isn’t often stopped.
Peruggia’s motives are critical to understanding the theft. Mars, the planet of action, is in Taurus. Taurus is one’s own personal wealth. As a Cancer Vesta in the 11th and then 10th, he is also focused on family (Cancer) and career (10th house). He said he was inspired to bring an Italian piece of art home. He may have wanted to make his fortune but he also chose something that had other intrinsic value.
Although his exact brith time is unknown, Peruggia was born in the afternoon. It is possible that at the deepest part of his chart he had a Taurus Chiron. This Chiron corresponds to part of the minor grand trine being conjunct Saturn-Mars-Pallas. The wound is to the home and comes as the form of abandonment. In his own chart, he carries the energy of a Vesta-Neptune conjunction. The ability to shapeshift was a strong element of his personality. His possession of Mona Lisa (natal Taurus Vesta conjunct Taurus Neptune) was part of soothing that wound. Peruggia did what no person has done for centuries, he possessed the Mona Lisa for his own for a few years. Alas she eventually abandoned him to his fate when he attempted to trade her away for money.
In the original charts of the theft, the asteroid Leonardo is conjunct the Persephone glyph. We do not know why Leonardo da Vinci never gave the painting to the man who commissioned it but this may be a hint. Could Leonardo the son of Piero from Vinci possibly have been kidnapped by the icon himself? Vincenzo Peruggia later lived in Paris under his birth name, Pietro. We know he saw her at least once more. Leonardo the son of Piero from Vinci and Pietro of Perugia who both possessed her or were quite possibly possessed by her through obsession. This is the astrology of the kidnapping.