What is well established is that Peruggia did not sell the painting for over two years, and that he eventually returned to Italy with it. He left Paris sometime in late 1913, traveling to Florence, the city that is associated with the greatest period of Leonardo da Vinci’s career and with Italian Renaissance art more broadly. He took the painting with him in a trunk.
He had a plan — or what he believed was a plan. He would offer the painting to an Italian art dealer or institution, claim that he was returning it to Italy for patriotic reasons, and receive a substantial payment for his act of cultural patriotism. The story he told himself had evolved, in the two years he had been sitting across from the hidden painting in his Paris apartment, from an account of theft-for-profit into an account of principled repatriation. Whether this evolution was genuine, strategic, or some complicated mixture of the two is not fully knowable from the record. What is clear is that by November 1913, he was in Florence, preparing to approach the city’s art world.
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## The Letter to Alfredo Geri
Alfredo Geri was a Florentine antique dealer with a shop in the Via Borgo Ognissanti. He was known in the city’s art world for his legitimate dealing in antiques and artwork, and had a reputation for professional seriousness. In November 1913, he received an unusual letter.
The letter was signed “Leonardo V.” or “Leonard” — an alias that was thin at best, given the subject matter. The writer claimed to be in possession of the Mona Lisa and to be willing to negotiate a sale or arrangement for its return to Italy. The writer was explicit about wanting the painting to stay in Italy rather than return to France. He asked for 500,000 lire.