This week in history. On August 20th, 1911, Vincenzo Peruggia, an handyman from northern Italy stole the world's most famous painting, the Mona Lisa, from the world's most famous museum, the Louvre. On August 23, 1927, Italian-born anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were executed in Boston for the murders of two men. Historians have not reached a consensus on their guilt or innocence.