| Why does the Musee Du Louvre, Paris, house the | | | | fictitious landscape with mountains in the |
| most famous painting in the world when it was | | | | background. Where are there signs of Italian |
| painted in Italy by an Italian artist? | | | | civilisation? There is but a small bridge and some |
| There is nothing unusual about works of art being | | | | winding paths to behold. |
| shifted around the world and the Louvre contains | | | | The Mona Lisa is located in the Musee Du Louvre |
| a goodly selection of other Italian paintings - by | | | | chiefly because Leonardo took the painting to |
| Mantegna, Bellini, Caravaggio and Titian. | | | | France with him in 1516 and it eventual wound up |
| There is no doubt as to the Italian origins of this | | | | in the Louvre after the French Revolution. |
| masterpiece. Painted in Florence by the | | | | A hundred years ago, in August 1911 to be |
| Renaissance polymath Leonardo da Vinci, it is | | | | precise, the Mona Lisa was subject to an |
| sometimes also known by its Italian name "La | | | | unsuccessful episode of repatriation when it was |
| Gioconda". It is thought to be a painting of Lisa del | | | | stolen by Louvre worker Vincenzo Peruggia. The |
| Giocondo, a member of the Gherardini family who | | | | burglar hid in a broom cupboard till closing time and |
| married Francesco del Giocondo, a wealthy | | | | walked out with the painting under his coat. His |
| Florentine silk merchant. So there is not much | | | | motive? Rather like a devotee of the Elgin |
| mystery as to the origins of the names "La | | | | marbles arguing that they should be returned to |
| Gioconda" or the "Lisa" part of the painting's name. | | | | Greece, he believed the painting should be |
| As to the "Mona" part, this is doubtless a | | | | returned to its country of origin. Peruggia blew his |
| corruption of the Italian "Ma Donna", meaning "My | | | | cover two years later by trying to sell it on to |
| Lady". | | | | the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. After being exhibited |
| Yet, in the eyes of many, there is a mysterious | | | | all over Italy, the Mona Lisa was returned to the |
| and non-specific air to the painting. The most | | | | Louvre in 1913, and is still owned by the French |
| well-known adjective used to describe the painting | | | | Government. Peruggia got off lightly with a six |
| is "enigmatic". The background to the painting is | | | | month jail term. |
| not particularly relevant to Italy, it consisting of a | | | | |
