 Leonardo began to be revered as a genius, and the painting's popularity grew in the mid-19th century when French intelligentsia praised it as mysterious and a representation of the femme fatale.The Baedeker guide in 1878 called it "the most celebrated work of Leonardo in the Louvre", but the painting was known more by the intelligentsia than the general public.The 1911 theft of the "Mona Lisa" and its subsequent return was reported worldwide, leading to a massive increase in public recognition of the painting.