Mona Lisa Mona Lisa The Mona Lisa (; or La Gioconda , ) is a half-length portrait painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci that has been described as "the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world". The "Mona Lisa" is also one of the most valuable paintings in the world. It holds the Guinness World Record for the highest known insurance valuation in history at $100 million in 1962, which is worth nearly $800 million in 2017. The painting is thought to be a
Mona Lisa replicas and reinterpretations magnets, appearing in advertisements for fashion and travel industries, and on the cover of magazines. Leonardo da Vinci's own status as "genius" has been suggested as a factor contributing to the mystique of his creation. The eyes of Leonardo's original "Mona Lisa" appear within cover-graphics for Dan Brown's fictional novel "The Da Vinci Code". The "Mona Lisa" portrait also appeared in the teaser trailer for the 2006 film of the same name, although a replica was used for filming, appears only briefly in the film, and plays a very small part in the story. Along with Vermeer's "Girl with a