SUNDAY REVIEW / PICASSO'S BRUSH WITH LAW BEFORE HIS BRUSH WITH FAME

OF COURSE, HE DIDN'T STEAL THE MONA LISA? 

"Je ne sais Pas, mon ami."

Pablo Picasso was, in fact, arrested in 1911 during the investigation into the theft of the Mona Lisa — though he was entirely innocent of the crime. That is if you can accept as receiving stolen property as blameless. 

The painting disappeared from the Louvre on August 21, 1911. Its absence stunned Paris and electrified the international press. For two years the masterpiece was simply gone, and suspicion drifted through the city’s bohemian quarters as easily as cigarette smoke. Picasso’s involvement was accidental and indirect. 

A small-time Belgian thief named Honoré-Joseph Géry Pieret had stolen several Iberian sculptures from the Louvre prior to the Mona Lisa’s disappearance. Those sculptures found their way into the hands of Guillaume Apollinaire, the poet and close friend of Picasso. Some were eventually sold to Picasso, who admired their raw, archaic force and drew inspiration from them in shaping his early modernist work. When Pieret later bragged publicly about his Non-Mona Lisa Louvre thefts, the police traced the sculptures back to Apollinaire and then to Picasso. 

In September 1911, both men were arrested and interrogated. Picasso, still a young Spanish expatriate in Paris and not yet the titan he would become, reportedly broke down under questioning and even denied knowing Apollinaire, fearing deportation or worse. 

Authorities, however, found no evidence linking either man to the stolen Leonardo. They were released. The true thief turned out to be Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian handyman who had previously worked at the Louvre. He concealed himself inside the museum overnight, removed the Mona Lisa from its frame, and simply walked out with it hidden beneath his coat. He kept it for more than two years before attempting to sell it in Florence, where he was arrested in 1913. 

Picasso’s brush with the scandal remains one of the more curious footnotes in art history — a moment when the future architect of modernism briefly stood in the shadow of the world’s most famous missing painting. 

Picasso, left, before denying he ever knew his friend, Apollinaire.

DOUBLE STOOL PIDGEONS.

Poet Apollinaire

 After finking on Picasso to the Paris cops and Picasso lying he ever heard of Apollinaire the friendship did not end. It was strained in 1911 during the Mona Lisa theft scandal, when Apollinaire was arrested and, under pressure, mentioned Picasso to police. Picasso was questioned in the presence of a judge. The episode embarrassed and frightened both men, but they continued their relationship afterward. The real separation came with World War I. Apollinaire enlisted in the French army in 1914. Picasso, as a Spanish citizen, did not serve. In 1916 Apollinaire suffered a severe head wound from shrapnel and never fully regained his health. Apollinaire died in November 1918 during the influenza pandemic, weakened by his war injury. Picasso attended the funeral. So the friendship did not end in a quarrel. It faded under the strain of war, injury, and changing lives, and finally ended with Apollinaire’s death. For more on Picasso and Apollinaire sobbing before a Paris judge click: https://inmediaciones.org/la-ultima-historia-feliz-el-robo-de-la-gioconda/ and... https://criminocorpus.org/en/exhibitions/les-prisons-de-guillaume-apollinaire/le-poete-incarcere-reconstruction/ 

COFFEE BEANS & BEINGS / YAK MILK WITH YOUR BREW?

YOU'LL FIND THAT IN CHENGDU, CHINA 

There are coffee shops that chase trends, and then there are places like Charu in Chengdu, China that feel as if they were carried in on the wind from another world. 

Run by Tibetan nomads, this is less a café than a living room of culture, where coffee shares equal footing with craft, conversation, and quiet ritual. The signature yak milk coffee is the draw, rich and slightly wild, with a texture that lingers longer than anything you’ll find in a standard flat white. It pairs naturally with yak yogurt or a plate of handmade momos, turning a simple stop into something closer to a meal and a memory. 

What sets Charu apart is its sense of purpose. Textiles, carvings, and small handmade goods surround you, not as décor but as extensions of the people behind the counter. Travelers to this far Western Chinese metropolis tap on laptops beside locals deep in conversation, and the space hums with a kind of unforced authenticity that cannot be designed or franchised. 

 Charu is a place to get coffee, flavor it with Yak milk and a place to enjoy the surroundings. Here time stands still to a pace that will recall why coffee matters in the first place. 

Interior of Charu coffee house

 

What's Yak milk taste like? 

Yak milk is noticeably creamier and thicker than cow’s milk, almost like a natural half-and-half. It carries a slightly sweet, buttery flavor, but with an earthy undertone that reflects the grasses and herbs of the Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau. 

 The fat content is much higher—often double that of cow’s milk—which gives it that lush, almost velvety mouthfeel. Some people detect a faint tang or nuttiness, especially in fresh milk. When used in traditional drinks like butter tea, it becomes deeply savory, almost brothy, because it’s often churned with salt and yak butter rather than sugar. 

 If you’re used to standard dairy, the first sip can feel intense—denser, fuller, and a bit more “wild”—but many people grow to like it quickly. Where to buy. Realistically, go online find specialty import sites that carry goods from Tibet/China or find Yak ranch sites in Oregon, Colorado or Montana. Finding Yak powdered milk will be easier.

A yak is a species all its own.  Cow and Oxen are also bovines but less wooly