"The world interfered." This is a phrase that Ms. Scotti writes about three quarters of the way through the book and, in just three words, encompasses the entire scandal of the theft of Mona Lisa, told so eloquently and wonderfully in this book. When the Mona Lisa was stolen, the entire world w...
Whodunit?!I didn't actually know the Mona Lisa had been stolen from the Louvre before my husband suggested this book to me. So now I know, and I know who stole it . . . though I don't think I know the real reason why . . . but that's okay. As long as La Joconde is again safely tucked in her hom...
R.A. Scotti's "Basilica: The Splendor and the Scandal: Building St. Peter's" is more than just a biography of one of the world's great architectural wonder's. “Basilica” is a wonderfully readable historical narrative of the mid and late Renaissance in a plot-thick story of warrior-popes, internat...
In 1938, the most powerful hurricane to ever strike the Northeast of the US hit Long Island and New England. The hurricane was completely unpredicted and the death toll reflects that fact. There were 682 dead and 1,754 injured. Every state in New England other than Maine had deaths but no state s...
Under the headline, LE LOUVRE A PERDU LA“JOCONDE” (The Louvre Has Lost Mona Lisa), the illustrated paperExcelsior published a photomontage. Surrounding Mona Lisa andthe Louvre are (top to bottom, left to right) the museum directorJean Théophile Homolle, and the Sûreté chief Octave Hamard; twoview...
Backstage Wife was humming from the Philco console: “Can a small-town girl from Iowa find happiness with one of America’s most handsome actors, Larry Noble, matinee idol of a million other women … ?” Anthony Eden was speaking over a sleek Emerson table model, denouncing Chamberlain’s “straw peace...