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We haven't been able to take payment You must update your payment details via My Account or by clicking update payment details to keep your subscription. Act now to keep your subscription We've tried to contact you several times as we haven't been able to take payment. You must update your payment details via My Account or by clicking update payment details to keep your subscription. Your subscription is due to terminate We've tried to contact you several times as we haven't been able to take payment. You must update your payment details via My Account, otherwise your subscription will terminate. Saturday May 4 2024 For some five centuries she has been adored by emperors, idolised by art lovers and coveted by thieves. The Mona Lisa is the world's most famous, most visited and most parodied painting, but her sphinx-like smile has historically divided opinions. Napoleon loved her, but Marie Antoinette found her "too small, too dark" and had her removed to the obscurity of a poky back room at Versailles. Today up to ten million visitors a year pay court to the Mona Lisa at the Louvre in Paris, crowding into the gallery where she gazes out from behind 3in of bulletproof glass alongside works by Venetian masters of the 16th century. The portrait of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a Florentine merchant, hangs in the museum's Salle des États MARTIN BUREAU/AFP The museum's director, however, is now proposing to place Leonardo da Vinci's chef d'oeuvre in isolation once
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