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118-533: "La Joconde" is the French name of the Mona Lisa , which like about half of the collections of the Louvre , is included in the database, as one of 295 items by, after, or connected with Leonardo da Vinci ; of these, only 42 works are by Leonardo da Vinci, including 6 paintings. By November 2012, Joconde contained over 475,000 object online and over 290,000 with images, from 366 collections in France, including 209,350 drawings, 63,547 paintings, 34,561 prints, 34,102 sculptures or 16,631 costumes and their accessories and

236-523: A Colour Rendering Index of up to 98 and minimizes infrared and ultraviolet radiation, which could otherwise degrade the painting. The renovation of the gallery where the painting now resides was financed by the Japanese broadcaster Nippon Television . As of 2019, about 10.2 million people view the painting at the Louvre each year. On the 500th anniversary of the master's death, the Louvre held

354-705: A Mona Lisa parody made by adorning a cheap reproduction with a moustache and goatee. Duchamp added an inscription, which when read out loud in French sounds like "Elle a chaud au cul" meaning: "she has a hot ass", implying the woman in the painting is in a state of sexual excitement and intended as a Freudian joke . According to Rhonda R. Shearer , the apparent reproduction is in fact a copy partly modelled on Duchamp's own face. Salvador Dalí , famous for his surrealist work, painted Self portrait as Mona Lisa in 1954. Andy Warhol created serigraph prints of multiple Mona Lisa s, called Thirty Are Better than One , following

472-423: A 1477 printing of a volume by ancient Roman philosopher Cicero . Dated October 1503, the note was written by Leonardo's contemporary Agostino Vespucci . This note likens Leonardo to renowned Greek painter Apelles , who is mentioned in the text, and states that Leonardo was at that time working on a painting of Lisa del Giocondo. In response to the announcement of the discovery of this document, Vincent Delieuvin,

590-740: A California auction house on January 24, 1969, although no arrests were made. Various artifacts and other art worth $ 5 million were stolen from the Izmir Archaeology Museum in Istanbul, Turkey on July 24, 1969 (during which a night watchman was killed by the unidentified thieves). Turkish police soon arrested a German citizen who, at the time of his arrest on August 1, had 128 stolen items in his car. Art thieves stole seven paintings, including works by Cassatt , Monet , Pissarro and Rouault , from art dealer Stephen Hahn 's Madison Avenue art gallery at an estimated value of $ 500,000 on

708-650: A Rock and Portrait of Monet by Pierre-Auguste Renoir , Young Woman at the Ball by Berthe Morisot , and Portrait of Monet by Sei-ichi Naruse and were valued at $ 12 million. The paintings were later recovered in Corsica in 1990. The largest art theft, and the largest theft of any private property, in world history occurred in Boston on March 18, 1990, when thieves stole 13 pieces, collectively worth $ 300 million, from

826-538: A clandestine repatriation effort underway. In 2006, New York's Metropolitan Museum reached an agreement with Italy to return many disputed pieces . The Getty Museum in Los Angeles is also involved in a series of cases of this nature. The artwork in question is of Greek and ancient Italian origin. The museum agreed on November 20, 2006, to return 26 contested pieces to Italy. One of the Getty's signature pieces,

944-502: A combined value of £1.5 million (then US$ 4.2 million). The thieves entered the gallery by cutting a panel out of an unused door. All of the paintings were recovered by January 4, 1967. Sketches by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso and British sculptor Henry Moore , valued at $ 200,000, were stolen while on display in a travelling art exhibit organized by the University of Michigan . The sketches were eventually found by federal agents in

1062-400: A conservation and study team replaced the maple crosspieces with sycamore ones, and an additional metal crosspiece was added for scientific measurement of the panel's warp. The Mona Lisa has had many different decorative frames in its history. In 1909, the art collector Comtesse de Béhague gave the portrait its current frame, a Renaissance-era work consistent with the historical period of

1180-404: A few kilograms at most. Also, while most high-profile museums have extremely tight security, many places with multimillion-dollar art collections have disproportionately poor security measures. That makes them susceptible to thefts that are slightly more complicated than a typical smash-and-grab , but offer a huge potential payoff. Thieves sometimes target works based on their own familiarity with

1298-618: A former FBI agent who led the Art Crime Team until his retirement in 2008, the unit is very small compared with similar law-enforcement units in Europe, and most art thefts investigated by the FBI involve agents at local offices who handle routine property theft. "Art and antiquity crime is tolerated, in part, because it is considered a victimless crime," Wittman said in 2010. In response to a growing public awareness of art theft and recovery,

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1416-571: A further two still missing As of 2006 . Two paintings worth an estimated £3 million were stolen by three armed men in 2001. One of these, a Gainsborough had been previously stolen by Cahill's gang. Both paintings were recovered in September 2002. A mere two to three days after the recovery of the two paintings stolen in 2001, the house was robbed for the fourth time, with five paintings taken. These paintings were recovered in December 2002 during

1534-532: A geomorphology professor at Urbino University and an artist-photographer revealed that Mona Lisa ' s landscape was similar to some views in the Montefeltro region in the Italian provinces of Pesaro and Urbino , and Rimini . Research in 2023/2024 by geologist and art historian Ann Pizzorusso suggests that the landscape contains "several recognisable features of Lecco , on the shores of Lake Como in

1652-522: A million pieces of art and other culturally important items throughout Europe, before their destruction by Nazi plunder . In 2006, after a protracted court battle in the United States and Austria (see Republic of Austria v. Altmann ), five paintings by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt were returned to Maria Altmann , the niece of pre-war owner, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer. Two of the paintings were portraits of Altmann's aunt, Adele. The more famous of

1770-530: A number of not-for-profit and private companies now act both to record information about losses and oversee recovery efforts for claimed works of art. Among the most notable are: In January 2017, Spain's Interior Ministry announced that police from 18 European countries, with the support of Interpol, Europol , and Unesco , had arrested 75 people involved in an international network of art traffickers. The pan-European operation had begun in October 2016 and led to

1888-402: A period of curatorial maintenance, recording, and analysis—the painting was moved to a new location within the museum's Salle des États. It is displayed in a purpose-built, climate-controlled enclosure behind bulletproof glass. Since 2005, the painting has been illuminated by an LED lamp , and a new 20-watt LED lamp that was specially designed for this painting was installed in 2013. The lamp has

2006-578: A rare Rembrandt landscape. Other than a work at the time attributed to Brueghel the Elder returned by the thieves as an effort to start negotiations, the works have never been recovered. In 2003, The Globe and Mail estimated that the Rembrandt alone would be worth $ 1 million. Russborough House , the Irish estate of the late Sir Alfred Beit , has been robbed four times since 1974. In 1974, members of

2124-455: 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. During the 20th century, it

2242-427: A result, it was thought that the Mona Lisa had been trimmed. However, by 1993, Frank Zöllner observed that the painting surface had never been trimmed; this was confirmed through a series of tests in 2004. In view of this, Vincent Delieuvin , curator of 16th-century Italian painting at the Louvre, states that the sketch and these other copies must have been inspired by another version, while Zöllner states that

2360-402: A rock at the Mona Lisa while it was on display at the Louvre. He did so with such force that it shattered the glass case and dislodged a speck of pigment near the left elbow. The painting was protected by glass because a few years earlier a man who claimed to be in love with the painting had cut it with a razor blade and tried to steal it. Since then, bulletproof glass has been used to shield

2478-550: A search of a house in Clondalkin . Following the invasion of Cyprus in 1974 by Turkey , and the occupation of the northern part of the island churches belonging to the Cypriot Orthodox Church have been looted in what is described as "…one of the most systematic examples of the looting of art since World War II" . Several high-profile cases have made headline news on the international scene. Most notable

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2596-615: A small percentage of stolen art is recovered—an estimated 10%. Many nations operate police squads to investigate art theft and illegal trade in stolen art and antiquities . Some famous art theft cases include the robbery of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911 by employee Vincenzo Peruggia . Another was theft of The Scream , stolen from the Munch Museum in 2004, but recovered in 2006. The largest-value art theft occurred at

2714-531: A special vocabulary, which allows for very specific and accurate searches, helped as well by the index. Since July 9, 2019, Joconde is available on the Plateforme Ouverte du Patrimoine (POP), the general database of the ministry of culture, which gathers 8 databases and offers only 9 main advanced search criteria, but 3,976,845 objects, on 25 June 2022, including 253,677 drawings, 146,620 paintings or 226,777 sculptures. The former search page of Joconde

2832-508: A statue of the goddess Aphrodite , is the subject of particular scrutiny. In January 2013, after investigations by Interpol, FBI and The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, police in Canada arrested John Tillmann for an enormous spate of art thefts. It was later determined that Tillmann in conjunction with his Russian wife, had for over twenty years stolen at least 10,000 different art objects from museums, galleries, archives and shops around

2950-673: Is banned for life from acquiring any other relics . From 1933 through the end of World War II, the Nazi regime maintained a policy of looting art for sale or for removal to museums in the Third Reich. Hermann Göring , head of the Luftwaffe , personally took charge of hundreds of valuable pieces, generally stolen from Jews and other victims of the Holocaust . In early 2011, about 1,500 art masterpieces, assumed to have been stolen by

3068-541: Is based on the true story of works of art which had been placed in storage for protection in France during the war, but was looted by the Germans from French museums and private art collections, to be shipped by train back to Germany. Another film, The Monuments Men (2014), co-produced, co-written and directed by George Clooney , is based on a similar true-life story. In this film, U.S. soldiers are tasked with saving over

3186-632: Is held from June to August every year in Italy. A few American universities, including New York University , also offer courses on art theft. In the public sphere, Interpol , the FBI Art Crime Team, London's Metropolitan Police Art and Antiques Unit , New York Police Department 's special frauds squad and a number of other law enforcement agencies worldwide maintain "squads" dedicated to investigating thefts of this nature and recovering stolen works of art. According to Robert King Wittman ,

3304-404: Is in a remarkable state of preservation." It has never been fully restored, so the current condition is partly due to a variety of conservation treatments the painting has undergone. A detailed analysis in 1933 by Madame de Gironde revealed that earlier restorers had "acted with a great deal of restraint." Nevertheless, applications of varnish made to the painting had darkened even by the end of

3422-556: Is known in English as Mona Lisa , is based on the presumption that it depicts Lisa del Giocondo , although her likeness is uncertain. Renaissance art historian Giorgio Vasari wrote that " Leonardo undertook to paint, for Francesco del Giocondo, the portrait of Mona Lisa, his wife." Monna in Italian is a polite form of address originating as ma donna —similar to Ma'am , Madam , or my lady in English. This became madonna , and its contraction monna . The title of

3540-402: Is portrayed seated in what appears to be an open loggia with dark pillar bases on either side. Behind her, a vast landscape recedes to icy mountains, winding paths and a distant bridge, giving only the slightest indications of human presence. Leonardo has chosen to place the horizon line not at the neck, as he did with Ginevra de' Benci , but on a level with the eyes, thus linking the figure with

3658-440: Is still available, but no more updated since 19 March 2019. Mona Lisa The Mona Lisa ( / ˌ m oʊ n ə ˈ l iː s ə / MOH -nə LEE -sə ; Italian : la Gioconda [la dʒoˈkonda] or Monna Lisa [ˈmɔnna ˈliːza] ; French : la Joconde [la ʒɔkɔ̃d] ) is a half-length portrait painting by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci . Considered an archetypal masterpiece of

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3776-413: Is still expanding. By June 2022 it counted 636,405 objects. The database is not only dedicated to the information of the public but as well to the needs of the administrators and curators of the museums, thanks to the online presentation of professional tools to facilitate notably the museums collections cataloguing and state inventory ( récolement ). This explains the great precision of the listings. Since

3894-536: Is the one in the Louvre today. Others believe that there was only one true Mona Lisa but are divided as to the two aforementioned fates. At some point in the 16th century, a varnish was applied to the painting. It was kept at the Palace of Fontainebleau until Louis XIV moved it to the Palace of Versailles , where it remained until the French Revolution . In 1797, it went on permanent display at

4012-973: The Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre by employee Vincenzo Peruggia , who was caught after two years. The Nazi plundering of artworks was carried out by the Reichsleiter Rosenberg Institute for the Occupied Territories (Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg für die Besetzen Gebiete). In occupied France, the Jeu de Paume Art Museum in Paris was used as a central storage and sorting depot for looted artworks from museums and private art collections throughout France pending distribution to various persons and places in Germany. The Nazis confiscated tens of thousands of works from their legitimate Jewish owners. Some were confiscated by

4130-509: The Allies at the end of the war. Many ended up in the hands of respectable collectors and institutions. Jewish ownership of some of the art was codified into the Geneva conventions . In 1945, an American soldier, Joe Meador, stole eight medieval artifacts found in a mineshaft near Quedlinburg , which had been hidden by members of the local clergy from Nazi looters in 1943. After he returned to

4248-690: The IRA , including Rose Dugdale , bound and gagged the Beits, making off with nineteen paintings worth an estimated £8 million. A deal to exchange the paintings for prisoners was offered, but the paintings were recovered after a raid on a rented cottage in Cork , and those responsible were caught and imprisoned. In 1986, a Dublin gang led by Martin Cahill stole eighteen paintings worth an estimated £30 million in total. Sixteen paintings were subsequently recovered, with

4366-559: The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, when 13 works, worth a combined $ 500 million were stolen in 1990 . The case remains unsolved. Large-scale art thefts include the Nazi looting of Europe during World War II and the Russian looting of Ukraine during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine . Many thieves are motivated by the fact that valuable art pieces are worth millions of dollars and weigh only

4484-431: The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum . A reward of $ 5,000,000 was on offer for information leading to their return, but expired at the end of 2017. A reward of $ 10,000,000.00 is currently (2024)being offered by the museum, with a separate $ 100,000 reward for the eagle finial. The pieces stolen were: Vermeer 's The Concert , which is the most valuable stolen painting in the world; two Rembrandt paintings, The Storm on

4602-489: The Italian Renaissance , it has been described as "the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, [and] the most parodied work of art in the world." The painting's novel qualities include the subject's enigmatic expression, monumentality of the composition, the subtle modelling of forms, and the atmospheric illusionism. The painting has been traditionally considered to depict

4720-645: The L. A. Mayer Institute for Islamic Art in Jerusalem . Among the stolen watches was one known as the Marie-Antoinette , the most valuable piece of the watch collection made by the French-Swiss watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet on order by Queen Marie Antoinette , it is estimated to be worth $ 30 million. The heist is considered to be the largest robbery in Israel. The man responsible for the robbery

4838-565: The Lombardy region of northern Italy ." Of 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. He had begun working on a portrait of Lisa del Giocondo ,

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4956-446: The Louvre in Paris since 1797. The painting's global fame and popularity partly stem from its 1911 theft by Vincenzo Peruggia , who attributed his actions to Italian patriotism—a belief it should belong to Italy. The theft and subsequent recovery in 1914 generated unprecedented publicity for an art theft , and led to the publication of many cultural depictions such as the 1915 opera Mona Lisa , two early 1930s films ( The Theft of

5074-442: The Louvre representative, stated "Leonardo da Vinci was painting, in 1503, the portrait of a Florentine lady by the name of Lisa del Giocondo. About this we are now certain. Unfortunately, we cannot be absolutely certain that this portrait of Lisa del Giocondo is the painting of the Louvre." The catalogue raisonné Leonardo da Vinci (2019) confirms that the painting probably depicts Lisa del Giocondo, with Isabella d'Este being

5192-406: The Mona Lisa ' s undeniable popularity. Because of the painting's overwhelming stature, Dadaists and Surrealists often produce modifications and caricatures . In 1883, Le rire, an image of a Mona Lisa smoking a pipe, by Sapeck (Eugène Bataille), was shown at the " Incoherents " show in Paris. In 1919, Marcel Duchamp , one of the most influential modern artists, created L.H.O.O.Q. ,

5310-584: The Mona Lisa and other works. The Mona Lisa bears a strong resemblance to many Renaissance depictions of the Virgin Mary , who was at that time seen as an ideal for womanhood. The woman sits markedly upright in a "pozzetto" armchair with her arms folded, a sign of her reserved posture. Her gaze is fixed on the observer. The woman appears alive to an unusual extent, which Leonardo achieved by his method of not drawing outlines. The soft blending ( sfumato ) creates an ambiguous mood "mainly in two features:

5428-407: The Mona Lisa as imbued with a sense of mystery and romance . In 1859, Théophile Gautier wrote that the Mona Lisa was a "sphinx of beauty who smiles so mysteriously" and that "Beneath the form expressed one feels a thought that is vague, infinite, inexpressible. One is moved, troubled ... repressed desires, hopes that drive one to despair, stir painfully." Walter Pater 's essay of 1869 described

5546-412: The Mona Lisa . The edges of the painting have been trimmed at least once in its history to fit the picture into various frames, but no part of the original paint layer has been trimmed. The first and most extensive recorded cleaning, revarnishing, and touch-up of the Mona Lisa was an 1809 wash and revarnishing undertaken by Jean-Marie Hooghstoel, who was responsible for the restoration of paintings for

5664-540: The Nazis during and before World War II, were confiscated from a private home in Munich, Germany . The confiscation was not made public until November 2013. With an estimated value of $ 1 billion, their discovery is considered "astounding", and includes works by Pablo Picasso , Henri Matisse , Marc Chagall , Paul Klee , Max Beckmann and Emil Nolde , all of which were considered lost. The looted, mostly Modernist art

5782-596: The Uffizi Gallery in Florence . It was exhibited in the Uffizi Gallery for over two weeks and returned to the Louvre on 4 January 1914. Peruggia served six months in prison for the crime and was hailed for his patriotism in Italy. A year after the theft, Saturday Evening Post journalist Karl Decker wrote that he met an alleged accomplice named Eduardo de Valfierno , who claimed to have masterminded

5900-420: The most highly-valued painting in the world. The insurance was not purchased; instead, more was spent on security. Art theft Art theft , sometimes called artnapping , is the stealing of paintings , sculptures , or other forms of visual art from galleries , museums or other public and private locations. Stolen art is often resold or used by criminals as collateral to secure loans. Only

6018-463: The "Direction des Musées de France" (DMF) section of the Ministry. A small number of the best known objects have a prose commentary. Not all images are in colour, especially for the archaeological collections. When an object created after the mid-20th century has no image this is most often for copyright reasons. On the original database, the listing of 49 search criteria is highly structured, using

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6136-409: The 16th century, and an aggressive 1809 cleaning and revarnishing removed some of the uppermost portion of the paint layer, resulting in a washed-out appearance to the face of the figure. Despite the treatments, the Mona Lisa has been well cared for throughout its history, and although the panel's warping caused the curators "some worry", the 2004–05 conservation team was optimistic about the future of

6254-550: The French government lent it to the United States to be displayed in New York City and Washington, D.C. It was shipped on the new ocean liner SS France . In New York, an estimated 1.7 million people queued "in order to cast a glance at the Mona Lisa for 20 seconds or so." While exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum of Art , the painting was nearly drenched in water because of a faulty sprinkler, but

6372-572: The Italian noblewoman Lisa del Giocondo . It is painted in oil on a white poplar panel . Leonardo never gave the painting to the Giocondo family. It was believed to have been painted between 1503 and 1506; however, Leonardo may have continued working on it as late as 1517. King Francis I of France acquired the Mona Lisa after Leonardo's death in 1519, and it is now the property of the French Republic. It has normally been on display at

6490-408: The Louvre filed a complaint. On 28 January 2024, two attackers from the environmentalist group Riposte Alimentaire (Food Retaliation) threw soup at the painting's protective glass, demanding the right to "healthy and sustainable food" and criticizing the contemporary state of agriculture. In the early 21st century, French scientist Pascal Cotte hypothesized a hidden portrait underneath the surface of

6608-606: The Louvre. After the French Revolution, the painting was moved to the Louvre, but spent a brief period in the bedroom of Napoleon (d. 1821) in the Tuileries Palace . 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. During the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871),

6726-548: The Mona Lisa and Arsène Lupin ), and the song " Mona Lisa " recorded by Nat King Cole —one of the most successful songs of the 1950s. The Mona Lisa is one of the most valuable paintings in the world. It holds the Guinness World Record for the highest known painting insurance valuation in history at US$ 100 million in 1962, equivalent to $ 1 billion as of 2023 . The title of the painting , which

6844-849: The Museum Security Network, Ton Cremers, is recipient of the National Conference on Cultural Property Protection Robert Burke Award. 2007 saw the foundation of the Association for Research into Crimes against Art (ARCA). ARCA is a nonprofit think tank dedicated principally to raising the profile of art crime ( art forgery and vandalism , as well as theft) as an academic subject. Since 2009, ARCA has offered an unaccredited postgraduate certificate program dedicated to this field of study. The Postgraduate Certificate Program in Art Crime and Cultural Heritage Protection

6962-646: The National Conference on Cultural Property Protection, held annually in Washington, D. C. The conference is aimed at professionals in the field of cultural property protection. Since 1996, the Netherlands-based Museum Security Network has disseminated news and information related to issues of cultural property loss and recovery. Since its founding the Museum Security Network has collected and disseminated over 45,000 reports about incidents with cultural property. The founder of

7080-671: The Sea of Galilee (his only known seascape) and Portrait of a Lady and Gentleman in Black ; A Rembrandt self-portrait etching; Manet 's Chez Tortoni ; five drawings by Edgar Degas ; Govaert Flinck 's Landscape with an Obelisk ; an ancient Chinese Qu; and a finial that once stood atop a flag from Napoleon's Army. In 1994, Edvard Munch 's The Scream was stolen from the National Gallery in Oslo , Norway, and held for ransom. It

7198-484: The United States, the artifacts remained in Meador's possession until his death in 1980. He made no attempt to sell them. When his older brother and sister attempted to sell a 9th-century manuscript and 16th-century prayer book in 1990, the two were charged. However, the charges were dismissed after it was declared the statute of limitations had expired. Three paintings by Georgia O'Keeffe were stolen while on display at

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7316-677: The acquiring country for decades) have become the subject of highly charged and political controversy. One prominent example is the case of the Elgin Marbles , which were moved from the Parthenon to the British Museum in 1816 by the Earl of Elgin . Many different Greek governments have called for the repatriation of the marbles. Similar controversies have arisen over Etruscan , Aztec , and Italian artworks, with advocates of

7434-631: The art gallery of her husband, Alfred Stieglitz . The paintings were eventually found by O'Keeffe following their purchase by the Princeton Gallery of Fine Arts for $ 35,000 in 1975. O'Keeffe sued the museum for their return and, despite a six-year statute of limitations on art theft, a state appellate court ruled in her favor on July 27, 1979. A total of eight Old Master paintings—three each by Rembrandt and Peter Paul Rubens , and one each by Adam Elsheimer and Gerrit Dou —were removed from this London gallery. The paintings were appraised at

7552-411: The artist, rather than the artist's reputation in the art world or the theoretical value of the work. Unfortunately for the thieves, it is extremely difficult to sell the most famous and valuable works without getting caught, because any interested buyer will almost certainly know the work is stolen and advertising it risks someone contacting the authorities. It is also difficult for the buyer to display

7670-798: The basement under the museum's square courtyard. Due to the renovation, visitors will be able to pass directly to the painting, which will reduce queues at the Louvre . The Mona Lisa began influencing contemporary Florentine painting even before its completion. Raphael , who had been to Leonardo's workshop several times, promptly used elements of the portrait's composition and format in several of his works, such as Young Woman with Unicorn ( c.  1506 ), and Portrait of Maddalena Doni ( c.  1506 ). Later paintings by Raphael, such as La velata (1515–16) and Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione ( c.  1514–15 ), continued to borrow from Leonardo's painting. Zollner states that "None of Leonardo's works would exert more influence upon

7788-408: The best-known source of information on the provenance of the work and identity of the sitter. Leonardo's assistant Salaì , at his death in 1524, owned a portrait which in his personal papers was named la Gioconda , a painting bequeathed to him by Leonardo. That Leonardo painted such a work, and its date, were confirmed in 2005 when a scholar at Heidelberg University discovered a marginal note in

7906-430: The birth of their second son, Andrea. The Italian name for the painting, La Gioconda , means 'jocund' ('happy' or 'jovial') or, literally, 'the jocund one', a pun on the feminine form of Lisa's married name, Giocondo. In French, the title La Joconde has the same meaning. Vasari's account of the Mona Lisa comes from his biography of Leonardo published in 1550, 31 years after the artist's death. It has long been

8024-633: The corners of the mouth, and the corners of the eyes". The depiction of the sitter in three-quarter profile is similar to late 15th-century works by Lorenzo di Credi and Agnolo di Domenico del Mazziere . Zöllner notes that the sitter's general position can be traced back to Flemish models and that "in particular the vertical slices of columns at both sides of the panel had precedents in Flemish portraiture." Woods-Marsden cites Hans Memling 's portrait of Benedetto Portinari (1487) or Italian imitations such as Sebastiano Mainardi's pendant portraits for

8142-431: The damage to Mona Lisa ' s left elbow with watercolour. In 1977, a new insect infestation was discovered in the back of the panel as a result of crosspieces installed to keep the painting from warping. This was treated on the spot with carbon tetrachloride , and later with an ethylene oxide treatment. In 1985, the spot was again treated with carbon tetrachloride as a preventive measure. On 6 April 2005—following

8260-405: The database Leonardo, with information about more than 1 million stolen artworks, and accessible to law enforcement agencies around the world. In December 2021 Michael Steinhardt, an American hedge-fund billionaire , was ordered to surrender 180 looted and illegally smuggled antiquities valued at 70 million U.S. dollars. The antiquities will be returned to their rightful owners and Steinhardt

8378-472: The evolution of the genre than the Mona Lisa . It became the definitive example of the Renaissance portrait and perhaps for this reason is seen not just as the likeness of a real person, but also as the embodiment of an ideal." Where earlier critics such as Vasari in the 16th century and André Félibien in the 17th praised the picture for its realism , by the mid-19th century, writers began to regard

8496-403: The eyebrows in detail. 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. Cotte discovered that the painting had been reworked several times, with changes made to the size of

8614-616: The face and the direction of gaze. He also 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. There has been much speculation regarding the painting's model and landscape. For example, Leonardo probably painted his model faithfully since her beauty is not seen as being among the best, "even when measured by late quattrocento (15th century) or even twenty-first century standards." Some historians in Eastern art, such as Yukio Yashiro , argue that

8732-656: The final years of his life, post-1513. Other academics argue that, given the historical documentation, Leonardo would have painted the work from 1513. According to Vasari, "after he had lingered over it four years, [he] left it unfinished". In 1516, Leonardo was invited by King Francis I to work at the Clos Lucé near the Château d'Amboise ; it is believed that he took the Mona Lisa with him and continued to work on it after he moved to France. Art historian Carmen C. Bambach has concluded that Leonardo probably continued refining

8850-475: The galleries of the Musée Napoléon . The work involved cleaning with spirits, touch-ups of colour, and revarnishing the painting. In 1906, Louvre restorer Eugène Denizard performed watercolour retouches on areas of the paint layer disturbed by the crack in the panel. Denizard also retouched the edges of the picture with varnish to mask areas that had been covered initially by an older frame. In 1913, when

8968-408: The glass enclosure. In both cases, the painting was undamaged. On 29 May 2022, a male activist, disguised as a woman in a wheelchair, threw cake at the protective glass covering the painting in an apparent attempt to raise awareness for climate change . The painting was not damaged. The man was arrested and placed in psychiatric care in the police headquarters. An investigation was opened after

9086-623: The landscape and emphasizing the mysterious nature of the painting. The bridge in the background was identified by Silvano Vincenti as the four-arched Romito di Laterina bridge from Etruscan - Roman times near Laterina , Arezzo over the Arno river . Other bridges with similar arches suggested as possible locations had more arches. Some observers find similarities with the Azzone Visconti Bridge . Mona Lisa has no clearly visible eyebrows or eyelashes, although Vasari describes

9204-509: The landscape in the background of the picture was influenced by Chinese paintings , but this thesis has been contested for lack of clear evidence. Research in 2003 by Professor Margaret Livingstone of Harvard University said that Mona Lisa's smile disappears when observed with direct vision, known as foveal . Because of the way the human eye processes visual information, it is less suited to pick up shadows directly; however, peripheral vision can pick up shadows well. Research in 2008 by

9322-422: The largest ever single exhibit of Leonardo's works from 24 October 2019 to 24 February 2020. 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. In 2024, it was decided to place the panel in a separate room. This change will require significant construction changes, including a new entrance to the Louvre and two rooms in

9440-518: The model of the Mona Lisa , by October 1503. It is believed by some that the Mona Lisa was begun in 1503 or 1504 in Florence. Although the Louvre states that it was "doubtless painted between 1503 and 1506", art historian Martin Kemp says that there are some difficulties in confirming the dates with certainty. Alessandro Vezzosi believes that the painting is characteristic of Leonardo's style in

9558-559: The museum and stole nine paintings, threatening security and visitors in the process. Among the stolen works were Impression, Sunrise (Impression, Soleil Levant) by Claude Monet , the painting from which Impressionism derived its name. Also stolen were Camille Monet and Cousin on the Beach at Trouville , Portrait of Jean Monet, Portrait of Poly, Fisherman of Belle-Isle and Field of Tulips in Holland also by Monet, Bather Sitting on

9676-452: The museum had closed. Peruggia was an Italian patriot who believed that Leonardo's painting should have been returned to an Italian museum. Peruggia may have been motivated by an associate whose copies of the original would significantly rise in value after the painting's theft. After having kept the Mona Lisa in his apartment for two years, Peruggia grew impatient and was caught when he attempted to sell it to Giovanni Poggi , director of

9794-573: The museums participate on a voluntary basis to the regular enrichment of the database, some can present a large part of their collection, while others appear only because of the mere permanent deposits made by the first ones. Live on the French Minitel system from 1992, the database went online in 1995. Originally just for objects from the fine arts and decorative arts , in 2004 Joconde was united with what had been separate databases for objects from archeology and ethnology . It comes under

9912-565: The night of November 17, 1969. Incidentally, Stephen Hahn had been discussing art theft with other art dealers as the theft was taking place. On September 4, 1972, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts was the site of the largest art theft in Canadian history, when armed thieves made off with jewelry, figurines and 18 paintings worth a total of $ 2 million (approximately $ 10.9 million today), including works by Delacroix , Gainsborough and

10030-663: The only plausible alternative. Scholars have developed several alternative views , arguing that Lisa del Giocondo was the subject of a different portrait, and identifying at least four other paintings referred to by Vasari as the Mona Lisa . Several other people have been proposed as the subject of the painting, including Isabella of Aragon , Cecilia Gallerani , Costanza d'Avalos, Duchess of Francavilla , Pacifica Brandano/Brandino, Isabella Gualanda, Caterina Sforza , Bianca Giovanna Sforza , Salaì, and even Leonardo himself. Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud theorized that Leonardo imparted an approving smile from his mother, Caterina, onto

10148-529: The originating countries generally alleging that the artifacts taken form a vital part of the countries cultural heritage . Yale University 's Peabody Museum of Natural History is engaged (as of November 2006) in talks with the government of Peru about possible repatriation of artifacts taken during the excavation of Machu Picchu by Yale's Hiram Bingham . Likewise, the Chinese government considers Chinese art in foreign hands to be stolen and there may be

10266-486: The painting from any further attacks. Subsequently, on 21 April 1974, while the painting was on display at the Tokyo National Museum , a woman sprayed it with red paint as a protest against that museum's failure to provide access for disabled people. On 2 August 2009, a Russian woman, distraught over being denied French citizenship, threw a ceramic teacup purchased at the Louvre; the vessel shattered against

10384-427: The painting has been temporarily moved to accommodate renovations to the Louvre on three occasions: between 1992 and 1995, from 2001 to 2005, and again in 2019. A new queuing system introduced in 2019 reduces the amount of time museum visitors have to wait in line to see the painting. After going through the queue, a group has about 30 seconds to see the painting. On 30 December 1956, Bolivian Ugo Ungaza Villegas threw

10502-533: The painting was moved from the Louvre to the Brest Arsenal . In 1911, the painting was still not popular among the lay-public. On 21 August 1911, the painting was stolen from the Louvre. The painting was first reported missing the next day by painter Louis Béroud . After some confusion as to whether the painting was being photographed somewhere, the Louvre was closed for a week for investigation. French poet Guillaume Apollinaire came under suspicion and

10620-404: The painting was recovered after its theft, Denizard was again called upon to work on the Mona Lisa . Denizard was directed to clean the picture without solvent and to lightly touch up several scratches on the painting with watercolour. In 1952, the varnish layer over the background in the painting was evened out. After the second 1956 attack, restorer Jean-Gabriel Goulinat was directed to touch up

10738-489: The painting's bullet-proof glass case protected it. In 1974, the painting was exhibited in Tokyo and Moscow. In 2014, 9.3 million people visited the Louvre. Former director Henri Loyrette reckoned that "80 percent of the people only want to see the Mona Lisa ." Before the 1962–1963 tour, the painting was assessed for insurance at $ 100 million (equivalent to $ 770 million in 2023), making it, in practice,

10856-423: The painting's visit to the United States in 1963. The French urban artist known pseudonymously as Invader has created versions of the Mona Lisa on city walls in Paris and Tokyo using a mosaic style. A 2014 New Yorker magazine cartoon parodies the supposed enigma of the Mona Lisa smile in an animation showing progressively more maniacal smiles. Today, the Mona Lisa is considered the most famous painting in

10974-534: The painting, though traditionally spelled Mona in English, is spelled in Italian as Monna Lisa ( mona being a vulgarity in Italian), but this is rare in English. 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. The painting is thought to have been commissioned for their new home, and to celebrate

11092-472: The painting. Both Vasari and Gian Paolo Lomazzo describe the subject as smiling, unlike the subject in Cotte's supposed portrait. In 2020, Cotte published a study alleging that the painting has an underdrawing , transferred from a preparatory drawing via the spolvero technique. The Mona Lisa has survived for more than 500 years, and an international commission convened in 1952 noted that "the picture

11210-449: The painting. He analysed the painting in the Louvre with reflective light technology beginning in 2004, and produced circumstantial evidence for his theory. Cotte admits that his investigation was carried out only in support of his hypotheses and should not be considered as definitive proof. The underlying portrait appears to be of a model looking to the side, and lacks flanking columns, but does not fit with historical descriptions of

11328-441: The picture for an exhibit to honour the anniversary of Leonardo's 500th birthday, the Mona Lisa was fitted in 1951 with a flexible oak frame with beech crosspieces . This flexible frame, which is used in addition to the decorative frame, exerts pressure on the panel to keep it from warping further. In 1970, the beech crosspieces were switched to maple after it was found that the beechwood had been infested with insects. In 2004–05,

11446-704: The recovery of about 3,500 stolen items including archaeological artifacts and other artwork. The ministry did not provide an inventory of recovered items or the locations of the arrests. In 1969 the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism formed the Comando Carabinieri Tutela Patrimonio Culturale (TPC), better known as the Carabinieri Art Squad. In 1980, the TPC established

11564-586: The risk of theft is neither negligible nor negotiable. Jean-Baptiste Oudry 's White Duck was stolen from the Cholmondeley collection at Houghton Hall in 1990. The canvas is still missing. Museums can take numerous measures to prevent the theft of artworks include having enough guides or guards to watch displayed items, avoiding situations where security-camera sightlines are blocked, and fastening paintings to walls with hanging wires that are not too thin and with locks. The Smithsonian Institution sponsors

11682-491: The sitter as "older than the rocks among which she sits; like the vampire, she has been dead many times, and learned the secrets of the grave; and has been a diver in the deep seas, and keeps their fallen day about her." By the early 20th century, some critics started to feel the painting had become a repository for subjective exegeses and theories. Upon the painting's theft in 1911, Renaissance historian Bernard Berenson admitted that it had "simply become an incubus, and [he]

11800-482: The sketch may be after another Leonardo portrait of the same subject. The record of an October 1517 visit by Louis d'Aragon states that the Mona Lisa was executed for the deceased Giuliano de' Medici , Leonardo's steward at Belvedere, Vienna , between 1513 and 1516 —but this was likely an error. According to Vasari, the painting was created for the model's husband, Francesco del Giocondo. A number of experts have argued that Leonardo made two versions (because of

11918-482: The temperature is maintained between 18 °C (64 °F) and 21 °C (70 °F). To compensate for fluctuations in relative humidity, the case is supplemented with a bed of silica gel treated to provide 55% relative humidity. Because the Mona Lisa ' s poplar support expands and contracts with changes in humidity, the picture has experienced some warping. In response to warping and swelling experienced during its storage during World War II, and to prepare

12036-716: The theft. Forger Yves Chaudron was to have created six copies of the painting to sell in the US while concealing the location of the original. Decker published this account of the theft in 1932. During World War II , it was again removed from the Louvre and taken first to the Château d'Amboise, then to the Loc-Dieu Abbey and Château de Chambord , then finally to the Musée Ingres in Montauban . In recent decades,

12154-429: The thickness of the panel. This intervention was skilfully executed, and successfully stabilized the crack. Sometime between 1888 and 1905, or perhaps during the picture's theft, the upper brace fell out. A later restorer glued and lined the resulting socket and crack with cloth. The picture is kept under strict, climate-controlled conditions in its bulletproof glass case. The humidity is maintained at 50% ±10%, and

12272-488: The two, the gold Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I , was sold in 2006 by Altmann and her co-heirs to philanthropist Ronald Lauder for $ 135 million. At the time of the sale, it was the highest known price ever paid for a painting. The remaining four restituted paintings were later sold at Christie's New York for over $ 190 million. Because antiquities are often regarded by the country of origin as national treasures, there are numerous cases where artworks (often displayed in

12390-704: The uncertainty concerning its dating and commissioner, as well as its fate following Leonardo's death in 1519, and the difference of details in Raphael's sketch—which may be explained by the possibility that he made the sketch from memory). The hypothetical first portrait, displaying prominent columns, would have been commissioned by Giocondo c.  1503 , and left unfinished in Leonardo's pupil and assistant Salaì's possession until his death in 1524. The second, commissioned by Giuliano de' Medici c.  1513 , would have been sold by Salaì to Francis I in 1518 and

12508-443: The use of a loggia , which has the effect of mediating between the sitter and the distant landscape, a feature missing from Leonardo's earlier portrait of Ginevra de' Benci . The painting was one of the first Italian portraits to depict the sitter in front of an imaginary landscape, although some scholars favour a realistic description, and Leonardo was one of the first painters to use aerial perspective . The enigmatic woman

12626-475: The work to visitors without it being recognized as stolen, thus defeating much of the point of owning the art. Many famous works have instead been held for ransom from the legitimate owner or even returned without ransom, due to the lack of black-market customers. Returning for ransom also risks a sting operation . For those with substantial collections, such as the Marquess of Cholmondeley at Houghton Hall ,

12744-583: The work until 1516 or 1517. Leonardo's right hand was paralytic c.  1517 , which may indicate why he left the Mona Lisa unfinished. Circa 1505, Raphael executed a pen-and-ink sketch, in which the columns flanking the subject are more apparent. Experts universally agree that it is based on Leonardo's portrait. Other later copies of the Mona Lisa , such as those in the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design and The Walters Art Museum , also display large flanking columns. As

12862-414: The work. At some point, the Mona Lisa was removed from its original frame. The unconstrained poplar panel warped freely with changes in humidity, and as a result, a crack developed near the top of the panel, extending down to the hairline of the figure. In the mid-18th century to early 19th century, two butterfly-shaped walnut braces were inserted into the back of the panel to a depth of about one third

12980-460: The world, a destination painting , but until the 20th century, it was 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. 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

13098-521: The world. While not the largest art heist in total dollar value, Tillmann's case may be the largest ever in number of objects stolen. Since its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia has stolen tens of thousands of art pieces. Experts state that this is the largest art theft since the Nazi looting of Europe in World War II. Perhaps the most famous case of art theft occurred on August 21, 1911, when

13216-523: Was Naaman Diller . On November 18, 2008, French and Israeli police officials discovered half of the cache of stolen timepieces in two bank safes in France. Of the 106 rare timepieces stolen in 1983, 96 have now been recovered. Among those recovered was the rare Marie-Antoinette watch. In 2010, Nili Shamrat, Diller's widow, was sentenced to 300 hours of community service and given a five-year suspended sentence for possession of stolen property. On October 28, 1985, during daylight hours, five masked gunmen entered

13334-407: Was an object for mass reproduction, merchandising, lampooning, and speculation, and was claimed to have been reproduced in "300 paintings and 2,000 advertisements". The Mona Lisa was regarded as "just another Leonardo until early last century, when the scandal of the painting's theft from the Louvre and subsequent return kept a spotlight on it over several years." From December 1962 to March 1963,

13452-416: Was arrested and imprisoned. Apollinaire implicated his friend Pablo Picasso , who was brought in for questioning. Both were later exonerated. The real culprit was Louvre employee Vincenzo Peruggia , who had helped construct the painting's glass case. He 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

13570-504: Was banned by the Nazis when they came to power, on the grounds that it was "un-German" or Jewish Bolshevist in nature. Descendants of Jewish collectors who were robbed of their works by the Nazis may be able to claim ownership of many of the works. Members of the families of the original owners of these artworks have, in many cases, persisted in claiming title to their pre-war property. The 1964 film The Train , starring Burt Lancaster ,

13688-400: Was glad to be rid of her." Jean Metzinger 's Le goûter (Tea Time) was exhibited at the 1911 Salon d'Automne and was sarcastically described as "la Joconde à la cuiller" (Mona Lisa with a spoon) by art critic Louis Vauxcelles on the front page of Gil Blas . André Salmon subsequently described the painting as "The Mona Lisa of Cubism". The avant-garde art world has made note of

13806-558: Was recovered later in the year. Three paintings were stolen from a German gallery in 1994, two of them belonging to the Tate Gallery in London. In 1998, Tate conceived of Operation Cobalt , the secret buyback of the paintings from the thieves. The paintings were recovered in 2000 and 2002, resulting in a profit of several million pounds for Tate, because of prior insurance payments. While being stored in preparation to be reproduced,

13924-805: Was the case of the Kanakaria mosaics, 6th century AD frescoes that were removed from the original church, trafficked to the US and offered for sale to a museum for the sum of US$ 20,000,000. These were subsequently recovered by the Orthodox Church following a court case in Indianapolis. On January 31, 1976, 118 paintings, drawings and other works by Picasso were stolen from an exhibition at the Palais des Papes in Avignon , France. On April 15, 1983, more than 200 rare clocks and watches were stolen from

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