A replica of Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece Mona Lisa was sold at Christie’s Auction House in Paris on Friday. The painting known as the Hekking Mona Lisa fetched about 3.4 million US dollars in an online auction. The painting fetched 10-15 times more than what the auction house had estimated.
The replica is named after its former owner Raymond Hekking, an antique dealer based in southern France. He bought the painting from an antique store in 1953 for £ 3.
The original Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre Museum in 1911 and was returned to the museum only in 1914. Hekking believed that the painting in his procession was the real Mona Lisa. After his death in 1977, the painting was passed on to his family and they decided to put it up for sale.
The replica is believed to have been painted by an unknown Italian artist in the early 1600s, almost 100 years after the original painting was made by Leonardo da Vinci. Da Vinci painted his masterpiece on a wood panel and the replica is painted on canvas.
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