PARS.- The justice French will examine tomorrow – April 25 – an unusual request from an association that demands the restitution of The Gioconda, the constructions master of the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci, exhibited in the museum of Louvre in Paris.
The Council of State, the highest French administrative court, received a request from International Restitutions, a mysterious association whose headquarters are unknown and who its directors are, to declare non-existent the decision of King Francis I to appropriate The Giocondaalso known as Mona Lisa.
Delete work from the museum
The association, which claims to act on behalf of the descendants of the painter’s heirs, hopes that the Renaissance masterpiece, which in the past has been the cause of friction between France and Italy, will be removed from the Louvre museum’s inventory.
But the Council of State is unlikely to rule in favor of International Restitutions. Similar requests from the association, for less emblematic works that The Giocondahave never prospered.
In a 2022 decision, the court ruled that the association did not have legitimacy to file a lawsuit and that only people who considered themselves legitimate owners and who had an interest, if applicable, in the restitution of these assets could file a lawsuit.
After falling out of favor with the Medici, a powerful and influential Renaissance family in Florence, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) placed himself under the protection of Francis I (king of France from 1515 to 1547) in 1516.
Upon leaving Italy, he took with him several of his works, including the portrait of the wife of the Florentine cloth merchant Francesco del Giocondo, made between 1503 and 1506.
He offered his works to the French sovereign, who paid him a generous pension in exchange.
These works entered the royal collections and never left France again.
The Gioconda It has been on display in the Louvre since 1797 and is likely to remain there for much longer.
FUENTE: AFP
