on the net quite a few have suggested that the one in the louvre is a fake as they could take flash photos of it or even jump the barrier to pose with it.Others wrote that this rumor was started by con artists who told their clients that they are selling them the real Mona Lisa. I am going to visit the louvre next week.Is there any detail which can be seen which might support one theory over another?
thanks,
Sam

Why don't you try to steal it? If the guards let you break the glass and take the painting, it must be fake.

If the Louvre can't tell if it's fake, then you probably can't either!

As I understand it, there is some serious protection for that painting, including thick bulletproof glass in front of it. Doubtful you can get too close or "jump the barrier".

If there's a chance it's fake, would you skip going to see it? Probably not...just go...and enjoy!

We "saw" it last summer. It was a mob scene of people in late July, pushing and shoving to get close to it. It was in a room all by itself. It was roped off but you could get within 6 feet of it. I thought it was very poorly displayed and wouldn't have been much improved even without the mad crowd of people. All in all a HUGE disappointment. Oh, yes, everyone was taking pictures and there was no guard in the room. More fuel for the rumor?? ;-)

maybe the guards are there so that no one can touch the painting or examine the canvas from the reverse.you can take as many pictures or pose as much as you want but touch the painting and you will be taken into a dark corner under the louvre and executed.If you examine your ticket you will see this described in the conditions for entry in the fine print.

It doesn't matter if it is fake - it's about the art - it existed once, and still does.

As far as I'm concerned it's original.

What difference does it make? If you are a believer in conspiracies nothing anyone says will convince you otherwise. After years and years of hearing all the hype about this painting I thought it was rather "mundane" when I saw it at the Louvre 2 years ago. There are many better painting to see in that museum.

I suppose the next thing we are going to see resurrected is that old story about the Mona Lisa actually being the picture of a man.

This painting seems to be as powerful at reinventing itself as is/are the Windsors in Britain and Madonna who should all hope their memory lives as long.

Everytime I see great paintings in Museums I always hope they are copies or reproductions and the originals are store away. It seem amazing to me the public would be allowed such unfettered access to irreplacable originals.

I agree with tpatricco, if the Louvre, a world-class museum, thinks it's good and genuine enough to put up on its walls, it should be good enough for the average sightseer (sp?). Although the 'real thing' itself seems anticlimactic after seeing it on numerous book covers, posters, computer screens, or even umbrellas, try to think about the significance of this piece of Renaissance art: a singular person represented not as the Virgin Mary or some other religious figure, but just as herself. That was novel, maybe even controversial, during those times. That was what the Renaissance was about: celebrating individuality.

P.S. The painting of a woman's hands was quite avant-garde as well.

Maybe the French pawned the real one to the Germans during the Occupation

Absurd.

Wasn't the Mona Lisa stolen from the Louvre in the early 20th century? It was recovered, supposedly, and perhaps then it was stored and a copy displayed. I sure hope so, given the number of flashbulbs that go off every minute.

Fake or not it doesn't matter ... what matters (TO ME) is that there is a BIG SIGN that says "NO FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY" and about 100 flash bulbs are going off and no one (in the museum) does a darn thing about it!! (how do you make the "mad face" icon?) Why bother having a stupid sign?! - Things like that REALLY anger me!

But I believe it is "real." - I mean, isn't that why we travel around the world visiting all these museums?

Actually, it's the copy my daughter painted...
M

FromAtlanta,

Me too! I want to throw something at the idiots using flash. The last time we were in the Orsay, our flash went off by mistake and a guard came up to chastise us. We thanked her profusely and apologized abjectly, and she was quite surprised at our reaction.

It was a madhouse the two times we went to see it, and I suspect they can't afford enough guards to control the crowd. It is behind some kind of plastic or glass that hinders your view, but I suspect it is there to protect the work from all the flashes. On our first visit, one man had forced himself to the barrier and was taking repeated flash pictures; I took a little comfort in thinking that he was probably just getting pictures of his own flash.

There used to be signs prohibiting flash photos. Have they been removed? Maybe they do use a glass that protects it.

When she came to Boston one year, I was disapponted how small the painting was because it made looking at it difficult with the crowd that hugged the front, the glass, and the barrier, so I never felt the joy as I did in Washington at the Philips Collection of a Bonnard.

The last time I was at the Louvre there were signs posted - no flashes. I honored it but several of those from other countries, won't name which ones were not only using their flashes they were pushing and shoving to get their way to the front. I guess the closer to the picture the more damage the flash will do to The Mona Lisa. I was appalled at their behavior.

I even went so far as to tell a few of them "no flashes". They knew what I was talking about yet chose to ignore me. The guards should put a stop to it. Like the other person who posted about the flash accidently going off at the d'Orsay Museum I had the same thing happen and in a split second they were there, which I appreciated, because it showed me the respect and honor they felt towards the works in the museum.