Featured Image Credit: AFF/Christian Offenberg/Alamy Stock Photo
Topics: Art
Anish Vij
Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa is arguably the most famous painting in the world and there's definitely more than one reason why.
On the face of things, it's just a small painting of a random woman, right?
And if you want to have a look at it in person, the portrait itself is visibly hidden behind bulletproof glass - so what makes it so special?
While there might not be one specific reason why good ol' Lisa is so popular, there is one theory which seems to come up more than the rest.
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Da Vinci was believed to have painted the portrait between 1503 and 1519.
However, Mona Lisa first grabbed worldwide attention when it was stolen in 1911.
Believe it or not, Pablo Picasso was even arrested as a suspect because he was apparently mates with another suspect, Guillaume Apollinaire, who brought him up to police while being interrogated.
As mentioned above by Sherif ElSahly: "After two years, it was finally located and everyone wanted to see this famous stolen painting."
An art dealer in Florence managed to alert the local authorities of a man who had contacted him about selling it and the painting was returned.
However, as WWI and WWII started to dominate the news, it was argued that the painting's popularity had stunted, as people, quite frankly, had bigger things to worry about.
Although, after the painting was shown in the United States in 1963 and then Japan in 1974, the Mona Lisa had reached an even higher status.
During a six-week stay in the US, around 40,000 people a day went to the Metropolitan Museum in New York City and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C for a visit.
In 2009, a Russian woman decided to chuck a ceramic cup at the painting but due to the bulletproof glass, Mona was not damaged.
And more recently, the painting was yet again the centre of attention earlier this year after a man hurled cake at it before being escorted from the Louvre by security.
Thankfully, the glass casing, which has been in place since 1956's acid attack, was able to save it from any damage.
As the culprit was being escorted out of the Louvre, the French-speaking man says: "Think of the earth, artists think of the earth. All artists think of the earth. That's why I did it.
"Think of the planet."
If you have a story you want to tell, send it to UNILAD via [email protected]