| During the time he spent at the French court, Leonardo da Vinci sold his portrait of Mona Lisa del Gioconda to the French king François I, who
added it to his collection. Over the years, it was moved to different
royal palaces at Fontainebleau and Versailles, until it found a permanent
place in the Louvre in Paris, a royal palace turned into a museum after
the French Revolution, where the famous painting can still be seen today. The longest period it was absent from the Louvre since then was during the time it hung on Napoleon I's bedroom wall for several years. |