Mona Lisa, also known as La Gioconda, the 16th century portrait painted in oil on a poplar panel of size 77 cm × 53 cm (30 in × 21 in) was painted by Leonardo da Vinci. Now the painting is owned by the Government of France and is in the Louvre (Musée du Louvre) in Paris with the title “Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo”. Over 6 million people view the painting each year. Few other works of art has been subject to so much scrutiny, study, and mythologizing, parodying, copying and attempted robberies.

Leonardo da Vinci began painting Mona Lisa in 1503, and, after he had lingered over it four years, left it unfinished. He is believed to have worked on it for three more years after he moved to France and finished it shortly before his death in 1519.

Leonardo carried the painting from Italy to France in 1516 when King François I invited him to work at the Clos Lucé. Most likely, through the heirs of Leonardo's assistant Salai, the king bought the painting for 4,000 écus and kept it at Château Fontainebleau, where it remained until it was given to Louis XIV.

Mona Lisa's fame skyrocketed when it was stolen on August 21, 1911. The French poet Guillaume Apollinaire, who had once called for the Louvre to be burnt down, came under suspicion, was arrested and jailed. Apollinaire tried to implicate his friend Pablo Picasso, who was also questioned, but both were later exonerated.

Two years later it was established that the real thief was Vincenzo Peruggia, a Louvre employee and an Italian patriot, who was sentenced for a small punishment. After exhibiting it all over Italy, Mona Lisa was finally returned to the Louvre in 1913.

During 1800s Romantic poets wrote about Mona Lisa as a femme fatale, “probably, because the literary gazers were mainly men who subjected her to an endless stream of male fantasies." During the 20th century, the painting was stolen, mass-reproduced, merchandised, lampooned. It was reproduced in "300 paintings and 2,000 advertisements".

Until the 20th century, Mona Lisa was just another painting, and not the "most famous painting in the world”. In 1852 its market value was only 90,000 francs compared to the paintings by Raphael valued at up to 600,000 francs.

From December 1962 to March 1963, the French Government lent it to the United States to be exhibited in New York City and Washington D.C. In 1974, the painting was exhibited also in Tokyo and Moscow.

Before sending to USA in 1962, the painting was valued for insurance purposes at $100 million, “the most valuable painting ever insured” according to the Guinness Book of Records. Recently it was surpassed by three other paintings - the Adele Bloch-Bauer I by Gustav Klimt sold for $135 million, the Woman III by Willem de Kooning sold for $138 million in November 2006, and No. 5, 1948 by Jackson Pollock sold for a record $140 million in November 2006.

Although the above prices are greater than the insured value of Mona Lisa, the comparison does not account for the change in prices of dollar and does not show the actual market value. It is because $100 million in 1962 was approximately $670 million in 2006 when adjusted for inflation using the US Consumer Price Index.