Christie's confirms 'Mona Lisa' from a French antique shop is not a Leonardo da Vinci

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Christie's confirms 'Mona Lisa' from a French antique shop is not a Leonardo da Vinci

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 imitation.

Now Christie'southward sale house has put the 'Hekking Mona Lisa' upwards for sale, hoping the story of his campaign to realise his dream volition help compensate for the fact it is a re-create.

"It looks like the Mona Lisa simply the quality of the execution is not Leonardo da Vinci," Christie's International Director of Old Master Painting Pierre Etienne said.

"Unfortunately on that point the dream is a bit over."

Hekking'due south argument was that the original painting was never returned later an early on 20th century theft, ending up in the shop in the village of Magagnosc in his native Provence while the gallery in the French uppercase was duped by a re-create.

Numerous paper cuttings testify to his badgering of the media and a Pathe newsreel detail from the 1960s shows U.s.a. journalists turning up to inspect the copy when the bodily Mona Lisa was loaned to the U.s.a..

The painting was washed by an unknown artist in the early on 17th century, around 100 years after the original by the Italian Renaissance master entered the royal drove of Francois I, Christie'southward said.

It has a guide price of 200,000-300,000 euros and the online auction ends on June xviii.

Christie's confirms 'Mona Lisa' from a French antique shop is not a Leonardo da Vinci

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