—
## Italy’s Response: Pride and Ambivalence
The discovery of the painting in Florence produced a complicated response in Italy that tells something important about the case’s cultural politics.
A significant portion of Italian public opinion was initially sympathetic to Peruggia. His stated motive — returning the work to Italy — resonated with Italian nationalist sentiment even though the historical premise for his claim was false. The argument that great Italian Renaissance artworks belonged in Italy, and that their presence in French museums was a kind of cultural appropriation, was one that many Italians found emotionally compelling even when they recognized that the specific history Peruggia cited was inaccurate.
Italian newspapers treated the story as major news. Peruggia himself, in his Italian press interviews following his arrest, presented himself as a patriot who had acted on principle. He appeared to genuinely believe, or to have convinced himself, that Italy would receive him as a hero rather than prosecuting him as a criminal.
He was wrong about that, but the sympathy was real enough to shape what followed.
The Mona Lisa was exhibited in Florence — at the Uffizi — before being moved. It was then taken to Rome, where it was displayed at the French Embassy in the Palazzo Farnese and at the Borghese Gallery. The Italian displays were framed as an opportunity for Italian citizens to see a work of their cultural heritage before it was returned to France. The framing was itself a reflection of the complicated cultural ownership politics that the theft had foregrounded.