https://peopleandmind.com/tags/mona-lisa/Recent content in Mona Lisa on PeopleAndMindHugo -- gohugo.ioen-usThu, 26 Mar 2026 15:15:31 +0000https://peopleandmind.com/2026/03/mona-lisas-wild-journey-from-royal-bathroom-to-louvre/Thu, 26 Mar 2026 15:15:31 +0000https://peopleandmind.com/2026/03/mona-lisas-wild-journey-from-royal-bathroom-to-louvre/What Happened The Mona Lisa’s journey began in 1503 when Leonardo da Vinci started painting Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a Florentine merchant, in his Florence studio. Da Vinci never finished the portrait to his satisfaction and kept it with him when he moved to France in 1516 at the invitation of King François I. When da Vinci died in 1519, his assistant Gian Giacomo Caprotti (known as Salaì) inherited the painting and sold it to King François I for 4,000 gold coins—equivalent to approximately $9.