21 Facts About Mona Lisa

Mona Lisa is a half-length portrait painting by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci.

Mona Lisa is one of the most valuable paintings in the world.

Title of the painting, which is known in English as Mona Lisa, is based on the presumption that it depicts Lisa del Giocondo, although her likeness is uncertain.

Mona Lisa del Giocondo was a member of the Gherardini family of Florence and Tuscany, and the wife of wealthy Florentine silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo.

Mona Lisa has no clearly visible eyebrows or eyelashes, although Vasari describes the eyebrows in detail.

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In 2007, French engineer Pascal Cotte announced that his ultra-high resolution scans of the painting provide evidence that Mona Lisa was originally painted with eyelashes and eyebrows, but that these had gradually disappeared over time, perhaps as a result of overcleaning.

Mona Lisa found that in one layer the subject was depicted wearing numerous hairpins and a headdress adorned with pearls which was later scrubbed out and overpainted.

Leonardo da Vinci's works, the Mona Lisa is the only portrait whose authenticity has never been seriously questioned, and one of four works – the others being Saint Jerome in the Wilderness, Adoration of the Magi and The Last Supper – whose attribution has avoided controversy.

The Mona Lisa was not widely known outside the art world, but in the 1860s, a portion of the French intelligentsia began to hail it as a masterwork of Renaissance painting.

Mona Lisa carried out the theft by entering the building during regular hours, hiding in a broom closet, and walking out with the painting hidden under his coat after the museum had closed.

Mona Lisa did so with such force that it shattered the glass case and dislodged a speck of pigment near the left elbow.

Mona Lisa analyzed the painting in the Louvre with reflective light technology beginning in 2004, and produced circumstantial evidence for his theory.

Mona Lisa has had many different decorative frames in its history, owing to changes in taste over the centuries.

The Mona Lisa was not included because it is in such great demand among visitors to the museum; the painting remained on display in its gallery.

Mona Lisa began influencing contemporary Florentine painting even before its completion.

In 1919, Marcel Duchamp, one of the most influential modern artists, created L H O O Q, a Mona Lisa parody made by adorning a cheap reproduction with a moustache and goatee.

Today the Mona Lisa is considered the most famous painting in the world, a destination painting, but until the 20th century it was simply one among many highly regarded artworks.

Once part of King Francis I of France's collection, the Mona Lisa was among the first artworks to be exhibited in the Louvre, which became a national museum after the French Revolution.

Version of Mona Lisa known as was for centuries considered to be a work by Leonardo.

Version of the Mona Lisa known as the Isleworth Mona Lisa was first bought by an English nobleman in 1778 and was rediscovered in 1913 by Hugh Blaker, an art connoisseur.

Version known as the Hermitage Mona Lisa is in the Hermitage Museum and it was made by an unknown 16th-century artist.