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Comment on Mona Lisa heist of 1911 concealed a perfect—and far more lucrative—crime

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Wow, what a great story!

I'm surprised the thief only served seven months in jail. I can't imagine it being that lenient today.

I was half expecting some crazy penalty like life imprisonment or death. Made me realise how out of touch I am with early 19th century Europe!

20th century

OK that's embarrassing!

Yep, well also...it was a victimless crime. No one was physically harmed.

Or maybe they give leniency for the "dude - you have balls of steel" factor...

Things would've gone a bit harder for him if he'd been extradited to France, I suspect.

In Italy, he could play up the Ollie North angle ("I'm a patriot, dammit!")

Italy in 1913 was nominally an ally of Germany and Austria, but in truth more closely allied with France. It's possible that the French and Italian authorities wanted to avoid a public spectacle that would inflame nationalists in both countries and make it more difficult to keep Italy a defacto French ally.

It makes me feel uncomfortable that sentences for crimes are orders of magnitude different depending on where you are being tried.

I guess different communities have different weightings on certain crimes.

Assassinate a world leader and you're a criminal in his home country but a hero to his enemies.

/me shoots some heroin into his eyeball

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