The Council of State examined Thursday the unusual request of an association which demands the restitution of the Mona Lisa, the masterpiece of Leonardo da Vinci exhibited at the Louvre, which has little chance of succeeding. According to Le Parisien, the Council of State will make its decision in a few days.
Requested by International Restitutions, a mysterious association whose head office and who its leaders are is unknown, the highest French administrative court is called to “declare non-existent» the decision of King François 1st «to appropriate» the portrait of Mona Lisa.
An association without a lawyer which claims to act for the heirs of Leonardo da Vinci
The association, which presents itself to the Council of State without a lawyer, requests that “non-existent» all acts «taken on the basis of the contested decision“. International Restitutions, which claims to act “on behalf of the descendants of the painter’s heirs“, hopes, in the event of victory, that this Renaissance masterpiece will be “removed» from the inventory of the Louvre Museum.
If International Restitutions’ request were accepted, should the Mona Lisa, which has sometimes been a subject of tension between France and Italy, be removed from the Louvre? Certainly not immediately. Similar requests from the association, for works less emblematic than the Mona Lisa, were never successful.
Thus, in October 2022, the association which had requested the deletion of the inventory of the Louvre museum “objects originating from shipments made following excavations carried out by the archaeological service of the Army of the Orient between 1915 and 1923», finally withdrew.
The Mona Lisa has been at the Louvre since 1797
In November 2022, International Restitutions requested to declare “non-existent the inclusion in the inventory of the Chinese museum of the Château de Fontainebleau of all the objects resulting from the sacking of the Summer Palace in Beijing» by French troops in 1860. This request was rejected by the Council of State.
In its decision, set to set a precedent, the Council of State declared that the association had not “standing to act“. “Only people who consider themselves to be the legitimate owners with an interest, where applicable, in the restitution of these goods”, were legitimate to submit a request, the court ruled.
Having fallen out of favor with the Medicis, Leonardo da Vinci came to place himself under the protection of Francis I during the winter of 1516. In his luggage, he took some of his paintings including the Mona Lisa (painted between 1503 and 1506). He had offered his works to the French sovereign who in exchange paid him a generous pension.
These works, which entered the royal collections, never left France again. The Mona Lisa has been at the Louvre since 1797… and is expected to stay there for a long time to come.
