Was Mona Lisa a self-portrait?
Scientists are hoping to exhume the grave of Leonardo da Vinci in a bid to discover whether the Mona Lisa was in fact a self-portrait. The remains of the artist would be reconstructed to determine whether or not the famed painting was da Vinci himself, just in disguise.
Historians believe that the artist, who lies in a tomb at Ambrose Castle in the Loire Valley, may have been spurred on to paint himself as a woman by his love of riddles.
Should the skull be determined to be the same as that of Mona Lisa's, it would lay to rest the centuries-old argument over who the subject of the famous painting is - da Vinci himself.
Giorgio Gruppioni, an anthropologist calling for the recovery of da Vinci's bones, said: "If we manage to find his skull, we could rebuild Leonardo's face and compare it with the Mona Lisa."
The campaign to exhume the artist's remains is being led by academics at the National Committee for Cultural Heritage in Italy.
Leonardo da Vinci died in 1519 at the age of 67.
