(Paris) The most famous painting in the world will be able to remain at the Louvre: unsurprisingly, the French Council of State rejected on Tuesday an association which considered the decision of King François 1 illegaler to “appropriate” There Mona LisaLeonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, in 1519.
The approach of International Restitutions, a mysterious association whose head office and who its leaders are is unknown, is “manifestly inadmissible”, ruled the highest French administrative court, which consequently sentenced it to 3,000 euros ( $4,400) fine for “abusive” procedure.
The association claims to act to obtain the restitution of property forming part of the public domain to their “legitimate owners”. But for the Council of State, only the latter would be justified, “if applicable”, in taking legal action.
The administrative judges also considered that it was not up to them to look into the “decisions” – a term they enclosed in quotation marks – taken under the French monarchy.
International Restitutions claimed to act “on behalf of the descendants of the painter’s heirs”, and hoped that in the event of victory, The Mona Lisa or “deleted” from the inventory of the Parisian Louvre museum.
Similar requests from the association, for less emblematic works than The Mona Lisanever came to fruition.
At the end of 2022, she thus asked to cancel “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. But the Council of State had rejected it, already considering that it did not have “the standing to act”.
The Mona Lisa has been in France since 1516, the year when Leonardo da Vinci, who had fallen out of favor with the Medici, came to place himself under the protection of Francis Ier.
In his luggage, he had taken some of his paintings, including the portrait of 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 should stay there for a long time.