Stability and freedom frequently clash. In 1772 Gustav III of Sweden opted for the former; he ran an autocoup, taking back control of the country from the parliament and sealing the deed on 21 August with a new constitution.
Gustav’s family was edged out in the next century, with Napoleon’s Marshal Bernadotte moving from Prince of Pontecorvo and governor-elect of Rome to Crown Prince of Sweden on 21 August 1810. As king of Sweden he would side with the Allies.
But 21 August was never a great day for Napoleon; 21 August 1791 marked the start of the Haitian Revolution which he could never quite deal with; while 21 August 1808 was the second of Arthur Wellesley’s successes in the Peninsular War, Napoleon’s beginning of the end.
Napoleon kept the Mona Lisa in his bedroom at the the Tuileries Palace, but it was well and truly back in the Louvre when it was stolen a century later.
Pablo Picasso among others was brought in for questioning. The true culprit was an Italian employee who was only arrested two years later when he tried to sell the portrait to the director of the Uffizi Gallery. The culprit gained much kudos in Italy for righting the wrong wrought by Napoleon. A bit unfair; while Napoleon lifted local art left right and centre, in this case it was da Vinci’s assistant who had sold the work to a French king 300 years before the wilting smile of youth put Boney to bed.
The most famous art theft of the century took place on 21 August 1911.
