Well I think the drama around it might have helped, but as someone who has done art history, I can’t remember the stolen part being mentioned.

Leonardo seems to be very famous in his time and after, and he died under the patronage of the king of France. I highly recommend reading his notebooks, it gives a glimps of the mind of this genius. His observational skills were impressive. In a way he was a hacker if you take the expanded meaning of the word: always thinking up new things and inventions.