Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that answer the question.
Query: How much is the Mona Lisa painting worth?
The most famous paintings, especially old master works done before 1803, are generally owned or held at museums, for viewing by patrons. Since the museums rarely sell them they are considered priceless. Guinness World Records lists da Vinci's Mona Lisa as having the highest ever insurance value for a painting. On permanent display at the Louvre in Paris, the Mona Lisa was assessed at US$100 million on December 14, 1962. Taking inflation into account, the 1962 value would be around US$830 million in 2018.[3]
Musically, the song is similar to those produced for the band's debut album, "A Fever You Can't Sweat Out" (2005); however, Urie explained in a 2011 interview that the song represented more of a new beginning. Urie said "It was a new start when Spencer Smith and I started writing, so it was gonna end up sounding different, sonically." The music has been described as a combination of buzzsaw riffs, punchy percussion and literate, multi-layered lyrics. The song's title is, of course, an allusion to "Mona Lisa", the famous Renaissance-era oil painting by Leonardo da Vinci. The painting inspired Panic!, which pulls their style from the nostalgic romanticism of the Elizabethan and Victorian eras. In a 2011 interview, Urie regarded the name and theme of the song as neither male nor female. “That whole thing with Mona Lisa was the idea that there is this character. For us, you look at the painting, and you can’t tell what this person is thinking. Not showing too much emotion, there’s this Mona Lisa smile masking what’s going on in that person’s head," he explained. "The song is about a battle in yourself […] an inner struggle in oneself. The duality in nature, where you see yourself as a bad person, and the good person trying to correct your bad habits. That’s what it was about. We thought that would be an easy way to describe how we were masking our own emotions and trying to figure out how we can solve the bad choices we make."
I, Mona Lisa (UK title Painting Mona Lisa) is a historical novel by Jeanne Kalogridis about Lisa Gherardini, the model for Leonardo da Vinci's painting "Mona Lisa". Lisa is portrayed as a young Italian woman who learns about the murder of Giuliano de' Medici, the brother of Lorenzo de' Medici in the Pazzi conspiracy. Guiliano's murder casts a shadow, especially as one of the killers has not been found. She later falls in love with Giuliano's namesake, Lorenzo's son Giuliano in the aftermath of Girolamo Savonarola's uprising in the late 15th century.
In 2017, Gérard Boudin de l'Arche published a comprehensive historical account and stated that Leonardo painted the "Isleworth Mona Lisa" before the Louvre "Mona Lisa".
At the start of the 16th century, Leonardo da Vinci was commissioned by Florentine nobleman Francesco del Giocondo to paint a portrait of his wife, Lisa.
The painting is believed to have been undertaken between 1503 and 1506.
Leonardo's portrait of "Mona Lisa" ("Mona" or "Monna" being the Italian honorific for "Madame") has been on display as part of the permanent collection at Paris' Louvre museum since 1797. It is also known as "La Joconde" in French and "La Gioconda" in Italian, and has been known by other names in the past. There is a new study setting the beginning of the Mona Lisa to an earlier date that thought before, pre-1478, contrary to Vasari's narrative.
Replicas of "Mona Lisa" date back to the 16th century,
including sculptures and etchings inspired by the painting.
But even by the start of the 20th century, historian Donald Sassoon has stated, "Mona Lisa" was still "just a well-respected painting by a famous old master, hanging in one of the great museums of the world."
The image had yet to gain iconic status, and, Sassoon adds, was "not even the most valued painting in the Louvre."
The painting's theft on August 11, 1911, and the subsequent media frenzy surrounding the investigation and its recovery are contributing factors which ignited public interest and catapulted "Mona Lisa" to its current standing.
Also, according to Henry F. Pulitzer in his book "Where is the Mona Lisa?" (1960), Gian Paolo Lomazzo, an artist and writer, refers in his "Trattato dell'arte della Pittura Scultura ed Architettura" (1584), to ""della Gioconda, e di Mona Lisa" (the Gioconda, and the Mona Lisa)". "La Gioconda" is sometimes used as an alternative title of the "Mona Lisa" hanging in the Louvre; the reference implies that these were, in fact, two separate paintings. Pulitzer reproduces the critical page from Lomazzo's tract in his own book.
In 2015, an academic publication by Professors Lorusso and Natali documented an exhaustive analysis of Mona Lisa paintings and copies, and concluded that both "Mona Lisa" and the "Isleworth Mona Lisa" were original works by Leonardo. In 2016, in another academic publication, Professors Asmus, Parfenov and Elford published the results of scientific examinations that established to their satisfaction that the same artist painted the face of both the "Mona Lisa" and the "Isleworth Mona Lisa".
According to Leonardo's early biographer Giorgio Vasari, Leonardo had started to paint "Mona Lisa" in 1503, but "left it unfinished". However, a fully finished painting of a "certain Florentine lady" surfaced again in 1517, shortly before Leonardo's death and in his private possession. The latter painting almost certainly is the one that now hangs in the Louvre. Based on this contradiction, supporters of the authenticity of the "Isleworth Mona Lisa" claim it is the unfinished "Mona Lisa", made at least partially by Leonardo, and the Louvre "Mona Lisa" a later version of it, made by Leonardo for his own use.
The Mona Lisa (/ˌmoʊnə ˈliːsə/; Italian: Monna Lisa [ˈmɔnna ˈliːza] or La Gioconda [la dʒoˈkonda], French: La Joconde [la ʒɔkɔ̃d]) is a half-length portrait painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci that has been described as "the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world".[1] The Mona Lisa is also one of the most valuable paintings in the world. It holds the Guinness World Record for the highest known insurance valuation in history at $100 million in 1962,[2] which is worth nearly $820 million in 2018.[3]
Luke enters Clyde's painting for a competition and Clyde wins first prize. The prize is a trip to see the first showing of Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" in Britain for Clyde and his class but Sarah Jane Smith is unaware of this as she and Luke have argued over the untidiness of his room. While the class is at the International Gallery with its director, Mr Harding, something causes the image of Mona Lisa to come to life and step out of the painting, and to replace herself with Harding's assistant, Miss Trupp. She also has the ability to make other people and objects from paintings come to life and able to make real people become part of paintings, and does this with some of the gallery staff. Believing the painting to be stolen, the gallery calls the police, who arrive. They have not been there long before the Mona Lisa also puts them into paintings. She removes a Sontaran blaster gun that Clyde has unwisely painted from his winning picture and commands the gallery's director to take her to find her 'brother'. Seeing the coverage of the apparent theft of the painting on television, Sarah Jane Smith arrives at the gallery and argues with the Mona Lisa to let the painting people come back to life. Instead, she puts Sarah Jane into a painting.
The contention that the "Mona Lisa" was painted by Leonardo as an androgynous "whole" humanity that represented both genders is contested by Olson and Meisel's book, in which they state that reputable art historians have explained that it is simply a masterful portrait of a woman. Olson and Meisel also take issue with the idea that Leonardo painted the "Mona Lisa" as a self-portrait, and that this idea is based on the fact that points of congruency are found between Leonardo's face and the Mona Lisa's. Olson and Meisel respond that points of congruency can be found among many faces, which is how computer morphing of faces is facilitated.
A version of the "Mona Lisa" known as the "Isleworth Mona Lisa" and also known as the "Earlier Mona Lisa" was first bought by an English nobleman in 1778 and was rediscovered in 1913 by Hugh Blaker, an art connoisseur. The painting was presented to the media in 2012 by the Mona Lisa Foundation. 
Mona Lisa is a crater on Venus at latitude 25.6, longitude 25.1. It is 79.4 km in diameter and was named after Lisa Giacondo, Leonardo da Vinci's model for the painting "Mona Lisa".
Mona Lisa has no clearly visible eyebrows or eyelashes. Some researchers claim that it was common at this time for genteel women to pluck these hairs, as they were considered unsightly.[70][71] 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 with visible eyebrows, but that these had gradually disappeared over time, perhaps as a result of overcleaning.[72] Cotte discovered the painting had been reworked several times, with changes made to the size of the Mona Lisa's face and the direction of her 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.[73]
It is a painting of the same subject as Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa". The painting is claimed by a majority of experts to be mostly an original work of Leonardo dating from the early 16th century: a survey of all published opinions shows that 22 experts are certain that the major parts of the "Isleworth Mona Lisa" are the work of Leonardo da Vinci.
The "Isleworth Mona Lisa" is wider than the "Mona Lisa" in the Louvre, having columns on either side which also appear in some other versions. The Louvre painting merely has the projecting bases of columns on either side, suggesting that the picture was originally framed by columns but was trimmed. However, experts who examined the "Mona Lisa" in 2004–2005 stated that the original painting had not been trimmed.
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 was an object for mass reproduction, merchandising, lampooning and speculation, and was claimed to have been reproduced in "300 paintings and 2,000 advertisements".[86] It has been said that 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."[87]
Although there are dozens of surviving replicas of "Mona Lisa" from the 16th and 17th centuries, the "Prado's Mona Lisa" may have been painted simultaneously by a student of Leonardo in the same studio where he painted his own "Mona Lisa", so it is said to be the replica with the most historical value. Among the pupils of Leonardo, Salaì or Francesco Melzi are the most plausible authors of the Prado's version, though other experts opine that the painting could have been executed by one of Leonardo's Spanish students.
In October 2013 Jean Pierre Isbouts published a book titled "The Mona Lisa Myth" examining the history and events behind the Louvre and Isleworth paintings and confirmed the latter's attribution to Leonardo. A companion film was released in March 2014. In April 2014, Albert Sauteur examined the perspective used to execute the "Isleworth Mona Lisa" and the "Mona Lisa" in the Louvre, and concluded that Leonardo painted both works. In July 2014 "The Mona Lisa Mystery" premiered on the PBS television station's series "Secrets of the Dead". This documentary investigated, at length, the authenticity of the Isleworth painting.
After restoration, the Prado's "Mona Lisa" revealed details covered by previous restorations and layers of varnish.
Furnishings and fabrics were enhanced, as well as landscape and facial features.
It is anticipated that such revelations may offer further insight into Leonardo's original.
Experts at the Louvre reportedly supported the Prado museum's findings.
The Prado replica was subsequently transported to the Louvre in 2012 to be displayed next to "Mona Lisa" as part of a temporary exhibition.
Two nude paintings bearing similarities to Leonardo da Vinci's original were part of a 2009 exhibition of artwork inspired by "Mona Lisa".
Displayed at the Museo Ideale in Leonardo's hometown of Vinci, near Florence, some believe one of the paintings – dating from Leonardo's time – to be the work of Leonardo himself, and it has at times been credited to him.
Other experts theorize the painting, one of at least six known to exist, may be just another copy painted by "followers" of Leonardo.
Scholarly dispute persists as to artist, subject and origin.
The nude in question, discovered behind a wall in a private library, reportedly belonged to an uncle of Napoleon Bonaparte, who owned another of Leonardo's paintings.
Facial features bear only vague resemblance, but landscape, compositional and technical details correspond to those of the "Mona Lisa" known worldwide today.
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 restoration of paintings for the galleries of the Musée Napoléon. The work involved cleaning with spirits, touch-up 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 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 to 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 the damage to Mona Lisa's left elbow with watercolour.[37]
A version of the Mona Lisa known as the Isleworth Mona Lisa and also known as the Earlier Mona Lisa was first bought by an English nobleman in 1778 and was rediscovered in 1913 by Hugh Blaker, an art connoisseur. The painting was presented to the media in 2012 by the Mona Lisa Foundation.[118] It is a painting of the same subject as Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. The painting is claimed by a majority of experts to be mostly an original work of Leonardo dating from the early 16th century.[119][29][120][121][122][123][124][31][125][6][7][45] Other experts, including Zöllner and Kemp, deny the attribution.[126][123]
Joos van Cleve, a Flemish artist active in the years following "Mona Lisa"'s creation, also painted a nude titled "Mona Vanna". Though the figure portrayed in van Cleve's painting bears no resemblance to Leonardo's "Mona Lisa", the artist was known to mimic themes and techniques of Leonardo da Vinci, in this case the positioning of the figure and the delicate brushwork reminiscent of Leonardo's sfumato. The artwork, dating to the mid-16th century, is in the collection of the National Gallery, Prague.
Salvador Dalí, famous for his surrealist work, painted Self portrait as Mona Lisa in 1954.[108] In 1963 following the painting's visit to the United States, Andy Warhol created serigraph prints of multiple Mona Lisa</i>s called Thirty are Better than One, like his works of Marilyn Monroe (Twenty-five Coloured Marilyns, 1962), Elvis Presley (1964) and Campbell's soup (1961–62).[109] The Mona Lisa continues to inspire artists. A French urban artist known pseudonymously as Invader has created versions on city walls in Paris and Tokyo using a mosaic style.[110] A collection of Mona Lisa parodies may be found on YouTube.[111] A 2014 New Yorker magazine cartoon parodies the supposed enigma of the Mona Lisa smile in an showing progressively maniacal smiles.
Painting "knock-offs" of "Mona Lisa" and other Western masterpieces has become a cottage industry of sorts.
Struggling artists in China paint them by the hundreds to supply the demand of American and European markets, and "Mona Lisa" is among the most popular requests.
Working in cramped studios, or at home with children running around, these artists can earn a few hundred dollars (US) for a weeks worth of work on paintings which are then sold retail through mail-order catalogues.
Reproducing the works of old masters by hand not only provides a way to earn a living but also a way of furthering their art education by perfecting painting techniques.