No surprise, The French Council of State rejected on Tuesday the petition of an association asking for the restitution of the Mona Lisa by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci, also known as Mona Lisa, exhibited in the Louvre museum in Paris.
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” La Gioconda. also known as Mona Lisa in 1519.
The association, which claims to act “on behalf of the descendants of the painter’s heirs,” hoped that the Renaissance masterpiece, which in the past has been the cause of friction between France and Italy, would be “removed” from the museum’s inventory. of the Louvre.
The Council of State indicated that the association’s request is “clearly unacceptable,” and sentenced her to a fine of 3,000 euros for an “abusive” procedure.
The association intends to act to obtain the restitution of assets that are part of the public domain to their “legitimate owners”, but for the Council of State, only these could eventually go to court.
The administrative judges also considered that they cannot address the “decisions” taken during the French monarchy.
Similar requests from the association, for less emblematic works than La Gioconda, were never successful.
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 return. These works entered the royal collections and never left France again.
The Mona Lisa has been on display at the Louvre since 1797… and will likely remain there for a long time to come.
