[12] The painting's global fame and popularity partly stem from its 1911 theft by Vincenzo Peruggia, who attributed his actions to Italian patriotism—a belief it should belong to Italy.

Renaissance art historian Giorgio Vasari wrote that "Leonardo undertook to paint, for Francesco del Giocondo, the portrait of Mona Lisa, his wife.

[28] That Leonardo painted such a work, and its date, were confirmed in 2005 when a scholar at Heidelberg University discovered a marginal note in a 1477 printing of a volume by ancient Roman philosopher Cicero.

[29] In response to the announcement of the discovery of this document, Vincent Delieuvin, the Louvre representative, stated "Leonardo da Vinci was painting, in 1503, the portrait of a Florentine lady by the name of Lisa del Giocondo.

"[30] The catalogue raisonné Leonardo da Vinci (2019) confirms that the painting probably depicts Lisa del Giocondo, with Isabella d'Este being the only plausible alternative.

[47] The painting was one of the first Italian portraits to depict the sitter in front of an imaginary landscape,[49] although some scholars favour a realistic description,[50] and Leonardo was one of the first painters to use aerial perspective.

Behind her, a vast landscape recedes to icy mountains,[52] winding paths and a distant bridge, giving only the slightest indications of human presence.

Leonardo chose to place the horizon line not at the neck, as he did with Ginevra de' Benci, but on a level with the eyes, thus linking the figure with the landscape and emphasizing the mysterious nature of the painting.

"[59] Some historians in Eastern art, such as Yukio Yashiro, argue that the landscape in the background of the picture was influenced by Chinese paintings;[60] this thesis has been contested for lack of clear evidence.

[62][63] Research in 2023/2024 by geologist and art historian Ann Pizzorusso suggests that the landscape contains "several recognisable features of Lecco, on the shores of Lake Como in the Lombardy region of northern Italy.

"[64] Of Leonardo da Vinci's works, the Mona Lisa is the only portrait whose authenticity has never been seriously questioned,[65] and one of four works—the others being Saint Jerome in the Wilderness, Adoration of the Magi and The Last Supper—whose attribution has avoided controversy.

[84] The record of an October 1517 visit by Louis d'Aragon states that the Mona Lisa was executed for the deceased Giuliano de' Medici, Leonardo's steward at Belvedere, Vienna, between 1513 and 1516;[87][88][c] this was likely an error.

[76][79][78][91] The hypothetical first portrait, displaying prominent columns, would have been commissioned by Giocondo c. 1503, and left unfinished in Leonardo's pupil and assistant Salaì's possession until his death in 1524.

[101] He carried out the theft by entering the building during regular hours, hiding in a broom closet, and walking out with the painting hidden under his coat after the museum had closed.

[103][page needed] After having kept the Mona Lisa in his apartment for two years, Peruggia grew impatient and was caught when he attempted to sell it to Giovanni Poggi, director of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

[111] On 2 August 2009, a Russian woman, distraught over being denied French citizenship, threw a ceramic teacup purchased at the Louvre; the vessel shattered against the glass enclosure.

Despite the treatments, the Mona Lisa has been well cared for throughout its history, and although the panel's warping caused the curators "some worry",[126] the 2004–05 conservation team was optimistic about the future of the work.

In response to warping and swelling experienced during its storage during World War II, and to prepare the picture for an exhibit to honour the anniversary of Leonardo's 500th birthday, the Mona Lisa was fitted in 1951 with a flexible oak frame with beech crosspieces.

In 1909, the art collector Comtesse de Béhague gave the portrait its current frame,[129] a Renaissance-era work consistent with the historical period of the Mona Lisa.

In 1859, Théophile Gautier wrote that the Mona Lisa was a "sphinx of beauty who smiles so mysteriously" and that "Beneath the form expressed one feels a thought that is vague, infinite, inexpressible.

Walter Pater's essay of 1869 described the sitter as "older than the rocks among which she sits; like the vampire, she has been dead many times, and learned the secrets of the grave; and has been a diver in the deep seas, and keeps their fallen day about her.

In 1919, Marcel Duchamp, one of the most influential modern artists, created L.H.O.O.Q., a Mona Lisa parody made by adorning a cheap reproduction with a moustache and goatee.

[39][40] Duchamp added an inscription, which when read out loud in French sounds like "Elle a chaud au cul" (meaning "she has a hot ass"), implying the woman in the painting is in a state of sexual excitement and intended as a Freudian joke.

[148] Andy Warhol created serigraph prints of multiple Mona Lisas, called Thirty Are Better than One, following the painting's visit to the United States in 1963.

[149] The French urban artist known pseudonymously as Invader has created versions of the Mona Lisa on city walls in Paris and Tokyo using a mosaic style.

[152] Once part of King Francis I of France's collection, the Mona Lisa was among the first artworks to be exhibited in the Louvre, which became a national museum after the French Revolution.

Leonardo began to be revered as a genius, and the painting's popularity grew in the mid-19th century when French intelligentsia praised it as mysterious and a representation of the femme fatale.

[154] 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.

"[156] From December 1962 to March 1963, the French government lent it to the United States to be displayed in New York City and Washington, D.C.[157][158] It was shipped on the new ocean liner SS France.

[175] Some experts, including Frank Zöllner, Martin Kemp, and Luke Syson denied the attribution to Leonardo;[176][177] professors such as Salvatore Lorusso, Andrea Natali,[178] and John F Asmus supported it;[179] others like Alessandro Vezzosi and Carlo Pedretti were uncertain.