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The  Mona Lisa is a half-length portrait painted by Leonardo de Vinci. Considered a masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, it is believed to have been painted between 1503 and 1506, but work may have continued for a decade beyond that.

 

The painting has been called "the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world." The painting is widely praised for its subject's enigmatic expression, composition and illusion of eyes that follow the viewer.

 

It is believed to depict Italian noblewoman Lisa Gherardini,  the wife of Francesco del Giocondo. Da Vinci in his will left the painting to his apprentice Salai. King Francis I of France obtained the painting, which is now the property of France, where it has been on permanent display at the Louvre since 1797. However, the theft of the painting may have increased its fame and helped make it among the best known, and loved, paintings in the world.

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"Before its theft, the "Mona Lisa" was not widely known outside the art world," according to National Public Radio. "Leonardo da Vinci painted it in 1507, but it wasn't until the 1860s that critics began to hail it as a masterwork of Renaissance painting. And that judgment didn't filter outside a thin slice of French intelligentsia."

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While many cite craftsmanship as the reason for Mona Lisa's celebrity, others point to the theft that turned her/it into an international sensation.

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“There was nothing that really distinguished it per se, other than it was a very good work by a very famous artist," Noah Charney, a professor of art history and author of "The Thefts of the Mona Lisa. "That’s until it was stolen. The theft is what really skyrocketed its appeal and made it a household name.”

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The painting disappeared in 1911, leading to a massive, but fruitless, search. Without going into detail, let's just say the Mona Lisa was recovered. The painting was displayed at the Uffizi in December of 1913 and toured numerous museums in Italy in a special compartment of the Milan-Paris Express. On December 31, the Mona Lisa was returned to Paris. On January 5, 1914, after being returned following a then famous theft, Mona Lisa was placed in its new home in the Louvre's Salon Carre.

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Stealing Mona Lisa is very much rooted in the true story of this theft and return of the painting that, to this day, may be one of the reasons for the fame of Leonardo's masterpiece.

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