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Smile · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
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  Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales right
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  Speaker 1: there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome
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  Speaker 1: to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Tom had been sentenced to
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  Speaker 1: die born a blind slave in eighteen fifties Georgia. He
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  Speaker 1: couldn't perform the typical duties of the other slaves. However,
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  Speaker 1: the infant and his family were sold to Neil James Bethune,
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  Speaker 1: newspaper editor and secessionist, who let the infant live rather
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  Speaker 1: than joining his parents in the field. Though the young
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  Speaker 1: Tom was allowed to wander around the plantation by himself.
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  Speaker 1: One day, while walking the grounds, the toddler came across
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  Speaker 1: a new sound he'd never heard before. It was beautiful,
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  Speaker 1: a tinkling of ivory against taut strings. The plantation owners
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  Speaker 1: daughters were having their piano lessons, and Tom listened intently
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  Speaker 1: as they played. He found ways to eavesdrop on their
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  Speaker 1: lessons and whenever someone would sit down to play for company.
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  Speaker 1: By the time he was four years old, he was
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  Speaker 1: allowed to use the piano and could plunk out the
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  Speaker 1: songs that he'd heard. A year later, he was composing
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  Speaker 1: his own tunes. His first was inspired by the sound
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  Speaker 1: of rain hitting a tin roof. As he got older,
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  Speaker 1: his skills advanced, and Bethune took notice. Tom played his
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  Speaker 1: first concert when he was only eight years old. After that,
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  Speaker 1: Bethune started hiring Tom out as a slave musician, charging
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  Speaker 1: fifteen thousand dollars per performance. You see, Tom possessed an
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  Speaker 1: incredible talent, one that he'd had since he was only
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  Speaker 1: a few years old. He only needed to hear a
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  Speaker 1: song once before he could play it on the piano.
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  Speaker 1: His memory extended to more than music, though poems and
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  Speaker 1: foreign text were also retained after a single listen. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: when he was just a boy, Tom could listen to
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  Speaker 1: a conversation and repeat each person's side verbatim for up
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  Speaker 1: to ten minutes, and he was an impeccable mimic, even
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  Speaker 1: going so far as to impersonate the birds he heard
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  Speaker 1: on the plantation, like the roosters and the crows. When
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  Speaker 1: he was sixteen years old, Tom could sit down at
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  Speaker 1: the piano and play Beethoven, Bach and Chopin with ease
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  Speaker 1: again after hearing the songs just one time. He even
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  Speaker 1: got a chance to perform his original songs for Mark
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  Speaker 1: Twain and President Buchanan. He'd played one of his own
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  Speaker 1: melodies once, then repeated exactly the same way to prove
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  Speaker 1: he wasn't faking it. He was a marvel. Several years later,
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  Speaker 1: Tom's tour was put on hold for the war effort,
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  Speaker 1: where he helped his owner raise money for the Confederacy.
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  Speaker 1: It was a gross injustice and a poor use of
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  Speaker 1: his talents, but sadly one that he had no way
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  Speaker 1: of avoiding. After the war, Wiggins was still indentured to
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  Speaker 1: the Bethuns and continued to live on the plantation. As
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  Speaker 1: their ward, they traveled overseas to Europe, where Tom would
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  Speaker 1: give performances to great acclaim. He and the Bethuns eventually
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  Speaker 1: moved to a farm in Virginia, where they would stay
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  Speaker 1: during the summer, but then tour all over North America
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  Speaker 1: the rest of the year. After the turn of the century,
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  Speaker 1: Tom took his act of vaudeville. He performed his first
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  Speaker 1: concert at the Orpheum Theater in Brooklyn. Over the next year,
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  Speaker 1: Tom toured extensively, putting increased strain on his body. His
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  Speaker 1: frenetic schedule caught up with him only one year later.
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  Speaker 1: In nineteen o four, he suffered a massive stroke that
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  Speaker 1: caused partial paralysis. By December of that year, his days
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  Speaker 1: of performing were over. A few years later, James passed
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  Speaker 1: away and his wife Eliza gained custody of Tom. The
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  Speaker 1: two of them moved up to Hoboken, New Jersey, where
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  Speaker 1: Tom continued to practice the piano from dawn tell dusk,
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  Speaker 1: much to the consternation of the neighbors. He was hit
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  Speaker 1: by another stroke in nineteen o eight, and in June
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  Speaker 1: of nineteen o nine, Blind Tom Wiggins finally passed away
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  Speaker 1: at the age of fifty nine. By that time, he
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  Speaker 1: had officially become a freeman, so his death, plays, films, poems,
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  Speaker 1: and biographies have all been written about Tom. His compositions
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  Speaker 1: have also been performed by musicians from all over the world.
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  Speaker 1: The Bethoons treated Tom as a side show actor and
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  Speaker 1: a cash cow, but unbeknownst to any of them, Tom
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  Speaker 1: was changing the face of music every time he sat
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  Speaker 1: down at the piano. Some may remember him simply as
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  Speaker 1: blind Tom Wiggins, but he was so much more than that.
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  Speaker 1: Tom was a revolutionary. Take a look around and you're
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  Speaker 1: certain to find something you take for granted. However, if
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  Speaker 1: you woke up one day to find that it had disappeared,
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  Speaker 1: your life might be changed forever. If the coffee shop
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  Speaker 1: where you get your morning cup, or the grocery store
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  Speaker 1: where you do your weekly shopping, were sudden they gone,
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  Speaker 1: you'd be lost, at least for a short while. More importantly,
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  Speaker 1: you'd be reminded just how valuable these things really were
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  Speaker 1: when you had them. In nineteen eleven, something else had disappeared,
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  Speaker 1: but nobody really knew how valuable it was until it
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  Speaker 1: was gone. It was a Monday in August, and Vicenzo
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  Speaker 1: Perugia had an idea. He was going to walk into
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  Speaker 1: a museum and steal a painting. Perugia had gained work
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  Speaker 1: for a short time at the museum as a handyman.
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  Speaker 1: He'd helped install the glass covers that protected the paintings
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  Speaker 1: from visitors grubby, dirty fingers. He'd also kept the white
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  Speaker 1: smock he'd worn as his uniform, which he wore as
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  Speaker 1: he strolled into the building with two helpers that morning.
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  Speaker 1: They were brothers, Michelle and Vicenzo Lancelotti, who followed Perugia
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  Speaker 1: right into the building. No one gave them a second look.
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  Speaker 1: Perhaps they fit right in or maybe everyone was just
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  Speaker 1: a little hungover from their celebrations the night before. As
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  Speaker 1: the other employees moved achingly around the floor, Perugia and
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  Speaker 1: his accomplices made their way to the room where the
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  Speaker 1: painting hung. They picked it up off its hooks as
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  Speaker 1: Perugia took off his smock, wrapping it around the glass
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  Speaker 1: enclosed frame to hide it as they hurried outside with
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  Speaker 1: their loot. It had been that easy. For one, this
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  Speaker 1: was nineteen eleven, before electronic sensors and cameras were able
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  Speaker 1: to detect so much as a strong sneeze near a painting. Secondly,
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  Speaker 1: no one really cared much about the piece outside of
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  Speaker 1: a few arts scholars. It wasn't particularly memorable or noticeable
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  Speaker 1: among the larger, more impressive works surrounding it. Believing that
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  Speaker 1: he had gotten away with a perfect crime, perugi erased
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  Speaker 1: home with the painting and stashed it away. He had
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  Speaker 1: hoped to sell it quickly and split the earnings with
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  Speaker 1: the two brothers who had helped him, but the painting
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  Speaker 1: they had stolen was more important than they realized. News
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  Speaker 1: about the theft spread across the world within days. The
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  Speaker 1: New York Times reported that sixty detectives had been tasked
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  Speaker 1: with loque the missing work of art, while conspiracy theories
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  Speaker 1: began to emerge. Some believed a millionaire like JP Morgan
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  Speaker 1: had purchased it for his private collection. Others thought artist
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  Speaker 1: Pablo Picasso had committed the theft out of jealousy, and
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  Speaker 1: there were even rumors that the Kaiser had orchestrated the
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  Speaker 1: whole thing. In the lead up to the First World War,
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  Speaker 1: no one had expected three average joes to simply walk
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  Speaker 1: into a museum and walk out with the painting. But
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  Speaker 1: the museum shut down for a week to help the
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  Speaker 1: police as they began their investigation. When it reopened, crowds
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  Speaker 1: of hundreds flocked to see the empty space on the wall.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, that open spot on the wall had become
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  Speaker 1: more popular than the painting that had once hung there.
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  Speaker 1: Perugia panicked, he couldn't sell it now, not while everyone
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  Speaker 1: was looking for it. He held onto it for two
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  Speaker 1: years until the heat surrounding it finally died down. Perugia
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  Speaker 1: had become paranoid, and the longer the painting was in
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  Speaker 1: his possession, like a telltale heart beating in his floor boards,
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  Speaker 1: the worse he felt. He booked a trip for himself
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  Speaker 1: and the painting back to his home country of Italy,
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  Speaker 1: where he met with gallery owner Alfredo Jerry. Jerry couldn't
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  Speaker 1: believe it. Seriously, he could not believe Perugia had been
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  Speaker 1: in possession of the painting everyone was talking about, so
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  Speaker 1: he asked another gallery owner to examine it with him,
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  Speaker 1: and they confirmed it. Perugia had been the owner of
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  Speaker 1: the most famous painting in the world for the last
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  Speaker 1: two years. Perugia clearly wanted to get rid of the
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  Speaker 1: cursed thing, and they told him to leave it with them.
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  Speaker 1: They would make sure that it got back to the
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  Speaker 1: museum without anyone knowing who had stolen it or how
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  Speaker 1: just kidding. They called the police, who arrested Mr. Perugia
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  Speaker 1: that day. When asked why he had taken it in
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  Speaker 1: the first place, Perugia claimed that he had been performing
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  Speaker 1: his patriotic duty to return the painting to its country
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  Speaker 1: of origin. It had been born in Italy and it
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  Speaker 1: should be hung there. But that had turned out to
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  Speaker 1: be a lie. Perugia's grand plan had always been to
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  Speaker 1: sell the pain teen and make a boatload of money. Instead,
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  Speaker 1: he got seven months in prison. After his release, he
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  Speaker 1: fought in World War One, and once the fighting had ended,
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  Speaker 1: he settled down to start a family. His life of
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  Speaker 1: crime was over. The painting also got a new lease
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  Speaker 1: on life once it was returned to the museum. It's
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  Speaker 1: picture has been printed in hundreds of newspapers all over
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  Speaker 1: Europe and the United States. For two years, it was
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  Speaker 1: all anyone could talk about, and the frenzy surrounding it
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  Speaker 1: had not quieted. In fact, ever since then, it's only
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  Speaker 1: gotten louder Today. The iconic work of art can be
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  Speaker 1: seen hanging in the louver, but you better get there
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  Speaker 1: early if you want to set your eyes on it.
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  Speaker 1: The famous smiling Lady on the canvas always draws a
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  Speaker 1: massive crowd, attracting millions each year from around the globe.
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  Speaker 1: Even to this day, the Mona Lisa still steals the show.
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  Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
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  Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
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  Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
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  Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership
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  Speaker 1: with How Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
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  Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series and television show,
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  Speaker 1: and you can learn all about it over at the
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  Speaker 1: world of lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,