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In this week's newest episode of Paris History Avec a Hemingway on La Vie Creative podcast, we go into Part 4 in the series of the Mona Lisa. 

The birth of one of the most recognized women in the world, the Mona Lisa began over five hundred years ago. 

In the five centuries since the painting began, she has found her way into the headlines, especially after her kidnapping in 1911. On January 28, 2024, she hit the international news once again. Two activists entered the Louvre with pumpkin soup in a coffee thermos and pushed through the mayhem of the Salle des États with everyone else and then pushed under the stanchions and the next thing we knew she was covered in soup. 

The two women shouted “What’s more important? Art or the right to a healthy & sustainable diet?” Protesting against the lack of healthy food at a time when the farmers are also standing up and using their tractors to block the roads of France. The attacks on art have been an ongoing issue for years now and rarely make the news anymore until they target La Joconde. 

With a museum filled with over 35,00 pieces of art, the Mona Lisa is the easiest target when one wants to make a point, garner attention, and make the front page. At least she is heavily protected behind bulletproof glass into a cement wall and very little can harm her. 

In 1963, 49 years after she visited Italy and returned to the Louvre she left once again, this time to Washinton DC, and New York at the request of Jackie Kennedy. Upon her return to France, she stayed output until 1974 when President Pompidou agreed she take a vacation to Tokyo in return for a large “donation” to France. On her way home she was hijacked by the Russians and put on display for a few weeks. 

Today she is back in the Louvre, never to leave France again. 
For more info and photos in the episode guide here   

Listen to part one in the tale of the Mona Lisa here     

Listen to part two and the story of her recovery here     

Listen to part three for a deeper look at Vincenzo and Lisa 

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