Can the Mona Lisa ever be sold? The Mona Lisa, by Leonardo da Vinci, can never be sold because it is owned by the people of France.
There was a time when the Mona Lisa was owned by a single person. In fact, the painting was owned by a few single people, and could have been sold, but those days are long gone. If the French government did decide to try and sell the Mona Lisa, nobody really knows how much it would sell for. It is estimated to be worth $908 million, but it is the most famous painting in the world, so that price would surely go up at auction. However, it is a moot point because the French government doesn’t have the ownership of the painting. So, who does?
The French people do. Leonardo da Vinci was Italian, so why is his most famous painting owned by the French people and displayed in France? Well, to make a long story short, because he died in France.
There are a few theories as to who is in the painting but Da Vinci was commissioned to paint Lisa, the wife of a wealthy silk merchant called Francesco del Giocondo, and possibly started painting it in 1503. Del Giocondo wanted the picture for a new home he had bought and to commemorate the birth of their second son. However, da Vinci received another commission the year after and put Lisa’s painting aside. Da Vinci was a genius, obviously, and his mind was always preoccupied with thousands of things at once. He often left work undone and moved onto something that he found more interesting. This happened to the Mona Lisa. He worked on it here and there, but he didn’t finish it in time for Francesco del Giocondo, who didn’t pay him. Da Vinci kept the painting and worked on it off and on over the following years.
So, why is an Italian painting in France? When Leonardo da Vinci traveled, he carried the paintings he was working on with him. He never knew when inspiration would take him. In 1516, King Francis I of France offered to employ da Vinci and he moved to France. It is thought that he had suffered several strokes and his right hand was paralyzed. This is another reason why he left many of his paintings unfinished. Da Vinci was left-handed, but people said that he drew with his left hand and painted with his right. He worked on Mona Lisa occasionally while he was in France, but he never finished it.
Da Vinci lived in France until he died in 1519. When he died, he left his paintings and half of his vineyards to his pupil and friend, Salai. When Salai died, King Francis I of France bought the painting from his estate and he hung in on a wall in his palace. The Mona Lisa was passed down through the royal family for over two hundred years, being owned by every successive king. That is, until the French revolution in 1789. The kings and the nobles were executed and everything that had belonged to the monarchy became the property of the new Republic. The Republic declared that the Mona Lisa was the property of the French people.
Only one more person would own the Mona Lisa after this. Napoleon Bonaparte became Emperor of France in 1804. He is said to have liked the Mona Lisa so much that he hung it in his bedroom. He only lasted as emperor for 10 years and after his downfall, the Mona Lisa was hung in the Louvre and, apart from a three-year period between 1911 and 1914, when it was stolen, it has hung there ever since.
The painting is the property of the French people, and the French government are responsible for the painting’s upkeep and protection. So, if the picture were to be sold, it would require the permission of every single French person. And the money wouldn’t go very far when split between them all.
Because Leonardo da Vinci was Italian, many Italians say that the painting should be returned to Italy. However, as it was legally purchased by the French King, that argument is not really valid. Some people also believe that Napoleon stole the painting when he conquered Italy, but that is also not true. And now, the painting is owned by all the people of France, so it is unlikely that it will ever be returned and impossible for it to ever be sold. And that is what I learned today.
Sources
https://www.quora.com/Why-did-Napoleon-hang-the-Mona-Lisa-painting-in-his-bedroom
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon
https://www.thecollector.com/how-mona-lisa-and-famous-artworks-were-never-finished/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa