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Show H! THE MISSING "MONA LISA."' f jM The theft of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa from the walls of Bl r-the Louvre is one of those crimes which make the lucubrations of H'" the detective novel seem pale and commonplace. Heaven knows how H finally thousands Of visitors throng those great galleries. The trcas- Hf ures collected there are under the care of custodians and gendarmes H enough to keep order in tho biggest and "baddest" mining camp of H T"the ancient west. Yet thieves walk away from such a gallery, so H . guarded, with the most famous picture in the world and nobody t- -2 knows for hours that the trick has been done, says the Denver News. H l. It is probable that Mona Lisa will bo recovered. The price of H recovery may well be a ranson that will, set evcrv clever criminal in two hemispheres to plotting duplicates of the crime; but it is to the H highest degree improbable that this wondrous work will disappear H (for good. Any decent collector to whom the work is offered will noti- E fy the French government; and if the picture falls into the bauds Hr of a collector who is willuig to receive and hide stolen goods, it will K bo restored to the Avorld at his death. One may safely assume that K r the smile of Mona Lisa will somehow be brought back to gladden H .the walls of the Louvre. B t But one cannot help thinking it is a pity that such a masler- K j apiece should fall, even for a time, into thedmnds of thieves. A statue B'-fl is about as easy to steal as a printing press. 'A masterpiece of music H;l or literature is yet moro fortunate, in that there the original is in- fl ff definitely multiplied. But a painting of fabulous value and unap- HJl proachablc beauty can be hidden under the coat of a thief and H more than once has been so hidden. |