Remembering Milton Esterow

It’s with great sadness that we learned Milton Esterow passed away on October 3 at the age of 97.

I first learned about the theft of the Mona Lisa in 1975. Wanting to know more, I went to the nearby Cottman Avenue branch of the Philadelphia Library. There I found a copy of Milt’s book The Art Stealers.

He had two chapters dedicated to the theft. I had just graduated from film school and had every intention of writing a feature film script that would tell the story of Vincenzo Peruggia’s unthinkable crime. Milt’s two chapters became my bible.

After writing many drafts of the script and never being happy with any of them, I took my wife Justine’s suggestion to make a documentary about the theft instead. It was 2008, and at the time I was making short docs on subjects that interested me. And the theft of the Mona Lisa was one that I had been fascinated with for more than 30 years.

I knew that the one person I wanted in my film was Milt Esterow. At the time, he was the editor and publisher of ARTnews, but I was too shy to make a phone call and I didn’t have his email address, so I sent my request for an interview to every permutation imaginable: milton.esterow@artnews.com, m_esterow@artnews.com, miltonesterow@artnews.co, etc. One of them got through and he answered me.

We had a phone call, and I told him how much his book meant to me and that our project was indeed real. We had contacted the daughter of the man who stole the Mona Lisa, Celestina Peruggia, and she had agreed to be interviewed. I asked him if he would be in the film, and he graciously agreed.

He gave a fantastic interview, and we used many of his clips in the film. Here is one where I ask him what he would have done with the Mona Lisa if he had been in Vincenzo Peruggia’s place. His answer shows his wonderful down-to-earth sense of humor.

We stayed in touch with Milt and kept him updated on our progress. He was delighted to help us, providing us with the names and contact info of other people to interview, particularly Marco Grassi and Pierre Daix, both of whom are in our documentary.

Mr. Grassi was an art restorer whose grandfather was an art dealer in Florence and was on hand when the Mona Lisa was recovered there in 1913. Mr. Daix was a friend and biographer of Pablo Picasso. Picasso had been questioned by the police in connection with the theft of the Mona Lisa.

There aren’t enough words to explain how much Milt meant to us. That he believed in us from the start and opened so many doors was extraordinary. He also embraced us as more than filmmakers; he held us close like we were family.

We will miss him deeply and celebrate him always.

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