#22 Mona Lisa — Mug

Mona Lisa
Leonardo da Vinci, 1517

On a Monday morning in August 1911 a Louvre workman named Vincenzo Peruggia lifted her off the wall, carried her down a back staircase under his smock and walked out. For two years the museum left the four iron pegs bare, and more people queued to look at the empty space than had ever come to see the painting. Peruggia was caught in Florence in 1913, trying to sell her to the Uffizi. She had hung quietly for four centuries. The theft made her the most recognised face on earth.

Musée du Louvre, Paris

An 11oz ceramic mug — the painting on one side, and the story you have just read printed on the other.

EU representative: HONSON VENTURES LIMITED, gpsr@honsonventures.com, 3, Gnaftis House flat 102, Limassol, Mesa Geitonia, 4003, CY

Product information: Generic brand, 2 year warranty in EU and Northern Ireland as per Directive 1999/44/EC

Care instructions: Clean in dishwasher or wash by hand with warm water and dish soap