ART BEAT
How can you visit Paris and not meet “My Lady”? If you do, you deserve to be guillotined! So don't forget to call on her at the Louvre Museum.
But what do you really know about her besides her enigmatic smile? Now's your chance...
1. She is perhaps the most famous painting in the world
2. Renowned Italian painter Leonardo da Vinci created this masterpiece
3. This iconic portrait is an oil painting from the 16th century
4. Da Vinci took more than four years to paint her
5. He must have been fond of her. Da Vinci carried Mona Lisa everywhere he went!
6. If she was alive today, Mona Lisa would be 500 years old!
7. The painting was actually called Monna Lisa. Monna, in Italian, means “My Lady”
8. It became Mona Lisa due to a spelling mistake in English!
9. So who was Mona Lisa? She is said to be Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a wealthy merchant from Italy
10. The French kings loved Mona Lisa. Francois I was a patron of arts and Leonardo da Vinci worked for him. On Da Vinci's death, Francois I came to own this famous Italian painting
11. The Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre Museum in 1911 and found two years later.
The thief was an Italian who worked in the Museum. He believed the painting belonged to Italy
12. Now “My Lady” gets special care. Mona Lisa has a $7.5 million dollar room of her own in the Louvre Museum in Paris
13. In 1956, a man hurled a rock at the Mona Lisa and left a mark under her left elbow
The same year a vandal threw acid on her while she was on display in another museum in France
14. A Russian woman threw a cup at Mona Lisa on August 2, 2009
15. The Mona Lisa is kept in a special sealed box to protect her from vibrations, heat and humidity. She is also guarded by bullet proof glass
16. The Mona Lisa is not insured as she is considered: Priceless!
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