One of the most persistent ideas, though, is the Mona Lisa effect—the notion that no matter where art-lovers move around the room, the eyes of Lady Giocondo look directly at them.

Compagnon was present at the museum for Macron's speech Tuesday. He said he's glad Mona Lisa is being given a dedicated space. "It will free the Salle des Etats," he said.

The mesmerising mystery of Mona Lisa's smile and how Leonardo magically leveraged it into creating "a thing more divine than human" and yet "not other than alive" would prove too intense for many ...

The gaze of the “Mona Lisa,” however, was measured by the study participants at an average angle of 15.4 degrees to the right – in short, the Mona Lisa is definitely not looking at her audience.

Mona Lisa, also called 'La Gioconda' or 'La Joconde', c1503-1506. Oil on wood by Leonardo da Vinci. UniversalImagesGroup/Getty ...

Our modern ideas about emotions leave us wondering just what Mona Lisa might have been feeling or thinking much more than the work’s early modern viewers likely did. A 20th century phenomenon In ...

The hidden image has art historians debating who the real-life 'Mona Lisa' was. — -- A hidden portrait underneath the "Mona Lisa" has been discovered by a French scientist, who said he ...

Mona Lisa is based in part on Leonardo da Vinci’s male lover, an Italian art detective claims. Silvano Vincenti, who has been analyzing da Vinci’s world-renowned painting for years, believes … ...

PARIS -- Many paintings are moved around at the Louvre in Paris, but rarely is it one of the world's most iconic works. For the first time in 14 years, Leonardo da Vinci's "The Mona Lisa" will be ...

A cake-throwing activist tried to damage the famous Mona Lisa in Paris but was thwarted by the painting’s glass case. Twitter/@klevisl007/via REUTERS He then “proceeds to smear cake on the ...