Italian cyclist Alberto Bettiol, who is participating in the Tour de France, asked the French president via social media on Friday to return the Mona Lisa to her country of origin.
“Mr Presidentplease give us back the Monna Lisa and thank you for coming to the Tour,” the athlete tweeted, referring to Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece in Italian spelling.
Monsieur le Président, please return the Monnalisa to us and thank you for coming @Let our #bettiolife @EFprocycling #TDFF2023
@jeredgruber pic.twitter.com/J2Lp7vnCRL– Alberto Bettiol (@AlbertoBettiol) July 7, 2023
Emmanuel Macron visited the cycling race on Thursday and even shook hands with Bettiol, who belongs to the EF Education EasyPost team.
Da Vinci left Italy, the country where he was born, when his boss died, having spent the last of his life in France as the guest of a French monarch, until he died in May 1519 at the chateau in the Loire Valley, that became his home. .
After the artist’s death, his assistant inherited the work and sold it to the King of France, Francis I, for 4,000 gold coins.
The work remained in the Palace of Fontainebleau until King Louis XIV transferred it to the Palace of Versailles. After the French Revolution it was transferred to the Louvre, where it can still be seen today.
However, Mona Lisa briefly returned to Italy in 1911, when it was stolen, but returned to the Louvre when museum employee Vincenzo Peruggia was arrested for stealing the work while trying to sell the painting to a Florence gallery.
In recent years, pressure has increased to return the work to Italy permanently.
Source: DN
