Volume 2 Issue 2     Brought to you quarterly by Masterpiece Mysterys

“Last night somebody broke into my apartment and replaced everything in it with exact duplicates . . . when I pointed it out to my roommate, he said, "Do I know you?"  -  Steve Wright 

“A burglar who respects his art always takes his time before taking anything else.” - O. Henry

MEMORABLE MOMENT:

 One of the most baffling vanishing acts to ever happen took place in Indiana in 1974. Workers for the Dowling Construction Company of Indianapolis returned to work one morning to discover their  2½-ton steel wrecking ball - hanging from a crane 200 feet above the ground - was gone. It was never recovered.

 Source: Mysteries of the Unexplained - Reader’s Digest

ANECDOTE – He Painted Himself Into A Corner …

During World War II, art dealer Hans Van Meegeren sold a painting by the Dutch master, Johannes Vermeer, to Nazi leader Hermann Goering. After the war Van Meegeren was indicted for treason for sending a national treasure out of the country. The art dealer produced a remarkable defense. He insisted nothing of value had left Holland. The painting was one of his own creations produced to fool the snobby experts who had doubted his own artistic ability. After proving his point by painting another masterpiece during the trial, Van Meegeren was promptly acquitted of treason and imprisoned for forgery.

Source: www.anecdotage.com

NEWS – From Masterpiece Mysterys

Blackmailing The Boss - Our new Office Mystery is available to spice up your workweek! Join our unlikely detective, Security guard Rusty Locke, as he unravels the nefarious misdeeds on Capital Corporations's third floor.
    Office Mysterys are downloadable mystery stories, complete with evidence and clues, that you and your coworkers get to puzzle out over the week. Sell the Solution Sheets to create an easy fundraiser or payday lottery. Keep sharp - they're fun, but they're not easy!
    Our first Office Mystery, Vending Vandalism, is free. Future Office Mysterys, including Blackmailing The Boss, are available to you for $9.95 Cdn. Find Office Mysterys Here!

Cluetrail Capers -A stranger joins your get-together. She tells an amazing story of lies, deceptions, and dirty tricks. She points fingers at your friends, and has evidence to back it up! Then - she drops dead. Your group has a time limit to puzzle out the clues and solve the mystery.
    Cluetrail Capers is the perfect solution for a party where you want some personalized excitement and intrigue. Give us an hour, and we'll give you an unforgettable event. Find Out More Here.

Kid's Party Tips - Our Gumshoe Detective Agency has exposed us to many a children's party, and we've seen many excellent innovative ideas. We've put them up for you, along with others we've collected in our travels! Find Them Here.
And stay tuned for Shipwrecked On Sugar Island, a complete Gumshoe Detective Game in a download! Available in about a month, you'll be able to Find Shipwrecked Here.

A continuing thank-you to our growing list of online friends. We continually search for more ways to bring the love of Mystery to as many as we can. Write to us! Tell us what you think! Give us your feedback on our site, our contests, or this newsletter!  We look forward to hearing from you. Just hit Reply.

HISTORY MYSTERY: 1911  -  Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa Abducted

            One day in 1911 an Italian carpenter and former employee of Paris’ Louvre art museum agreed to become the ‘inside man’ for an art heist that would remove Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa from the Museum. Vincenzo Peruggia, angered by incessant French taunts (his workmates often called him a ‘macaroni eater’), sought his revenge by teaming up with Yves Chardron and Marques Eduardo do Valfierno, the instigators of the crime.

            Yves Chardron was one of France’s most accomplished art restorers, who used his talents to produce brilliant forgeries. Among his illicit accomplishments were five exact duplicates of the Mona Lisa. Eduardo do Valfierno was the son of a rich Brazilian landowner who inherited only a few roomfuls of art from his father. He leveraged his inheritance by selling off the art collection to win the confidence of art collectors, then selling Chardron’s high class forgeries. Most collectors never noticed the difference. Valfierno hatched a plan to sell the Mona Lisa forgeries to five different collectors as originals. But first, they needed the real Mona Lisa to be stolen.

            Pretending to be cleaners, the three men swept their way through the gallery, removed the painting, then carried her out of the area and down a stairwell to freedom. A moment of panic ensued when they found the door at the bottom locked, the key they procured useless, and the doorknob fallen off into their hands. Luckily another employee came by and opened the door for them with his key. He returned to work while the crooks caught a cab and dashed away.

            Though the painting was stolen on a Monday morning, the theft wasn’t noticed until Tuesday afternoon. Then the news exploded. France’s borders were virtually sealed off. Among the suspects were the Louvre’s administrators, accused of staging the theft to boost attendance  -as, indeed, it did. Incredibly, more people visited the museum during this interval - to see the blank space on the wall where the Mona Lisa had once hung - than had visited over the previous twelve years to see the painting itself.

            Eventually the Mona Lisa was returned to the Louvre and given vastly tightened security. Many, however, have speculated that the real painting was never recovered.

Sources: They Day They Stole the Mona Lisa by Seymour Reit
 Scams, Scandals and Skulduggery by Andreas Schroeder

RECOMMENDED VIDEO:  SNEAKERS, starring Robert Redford and Ben Kingsley

Sit back and watch Robert Redford and a ragged band of nerds outwit an old friend with absurdly tight security. This early-Internet tale of high tech spy stuff features top-notch acting, a tight story line with plenty of humour, and some excellent sneaking. Perfect for a cool autumn night!

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