Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa on loan? French culture minister opens up to the possibility

France’s Minister of Culture, Françoise Nyssen, at a meeting on Tuesday evening opened up to the possibility that the Louvre might lend its most famous masterpiece, Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. Françoise Nyssen said that in her opinion the world of culture would be undermined by “taboos” that should be overcome, and one of these taboos concerns moving works of art. The minister therefore envisioned a plan to move works out of their museums.

"It would certainly not be a question of moving the Louvre in its entirety, but why should we prohibit ourselves from moving the Mona Lisa or the Bayeux tapestry?" said Nyssen in the meeting at which the Louvre’s president, Jean-Luc Martinez, was also present. Françoise Nyssen’s proposal comes on the heels of protests over Emmanuel Macron’s announcement in recent days that the Bayeux tapestry could be loaned to the United Kingdom in 2022. The last time Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous painting was loaned out was 1974, when it left for Japan and made a stopover in Moscow on its way back, and, since then, it has not been let out of the Louvre even for the annual checks on its “state of health” that are carried out in the gallery where it is kept, rather than in the appropriate laboratories. Italy had probed the ground for a loan in 2011, but the Louvre had refused. It must be stressed, however, that the Mona Lisa is a very delicate painting, and experts are unlikely to allow it to travel.

Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa on loan? French culture minister opens up to the possibility

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