Mona Lisa

The Mona Lisa was smeared with cake at the weekend by a man in a woman's wig who jumped out of a wheelchair and said artists should focus more on the planet.

Raymond Hekking spent decades trying to convince the world that the Mona Lisa painting he bought from a French antique shop in 1953 was the real thing and the one in the Louvre Museum was a fake.

Now Christie's auction house has put the "Hekking Mona Lisa" up for sale, hoping the story of his campaign to realize his dream will help compensate for the fact it is a copy.

A French documentary has cast fresh doubts over the world's most expensive painting, the "Salvator Mundi" credited to Leonardo da Vinci, revealing a resulting diplomatic tussle between France and its Saudi owner. The painting of Jesus Christ, nicknamed the "male Mona Lisa", was sold at a 2017 Christies auction in New York for a record $450 million.

The 518-year-old Mona Lisa has seen many things in her life on a wall, but rarely this: Almost four months with no Louvre visitors.

France could make up for its financial losses amid the coronavirus pandemic by selling the Mona Lisa, a tech CEO has suggested.

Stephane Distinguin, the founder of tech company Fabernovel, made the suggestion in a magazine interview, explaining that France should "sell the family jewellery" for at least €50 billion (£44.7 billion).

A Mona Lisa as puzzling as the smile of Leonardo da Vinci's muse -- made out of nearly 300 Rubik's Cubes -- sold for nearly half a million euros at auction in Paris on Feb. 23 evening.    

Mona Lisa painting made out of Rubik's Cubes was sold for an unexpectedly large amount.

The amount reached over $ 500,000. The initial estimate was that the unusual piece would be sold for less than half the amount.

The French street artist's interpretation of the Mona Lisa made out of 330 Rubik's Cubes was sold for 8,000 at a modern art auction in Paris.

After months of negotiations, the largest exhibition dedicated to Leonardo da Vinci, commemorating the 500th anniversary of his death, was opened in the Louvre.

The exhibition will feature drawings, sketches, paintings and other 160 works by the Italian Renaissance artist. Currently, over 220,000 tickets have been sold.

A painting by the Nigerian artist responsible for the "African Mona Lisa" sold at auction in London on Oct. 16 for 1.1 million after the family who owned it googled the signature and realized its importance.

Visitors will be able to view it through glass with greater transparency.

Almost three months after it was moved, the Mona Lisa painting is back in its usual place in the Louvre. The hall that houses Leonardo da Vinci's renowned work has been renovated after a major overhaul, and in recent months the painting has been housed in the Medici Gallery, in another Louvre wing.