She has been admired and imitated, parodied and exploited. Yet few of us know the story of this priceless treasure — how she was created, her impact on other artists, her Napoleonic connection, the story of her theft and how, mainly by chance and by her own enigmatic beauty, she came to be a global icon. Leonardo and the Mona Lisa Story is a visual history that ranges from mid-fifteenth-century Italy to La Gioconda’s uncertain future today. Each chapter opens with an essay by Donald Sassoon on a crucial period in the painting’s life. Then hundreds of pictures tell the rest. Every salient moment of the Mona Lisa's history is represented — from da Vinci’s first drawings to contemporary parodies of his most famous work.

DONALD SASSOON is a professor of Comparative European History at Queen Mary, University of London, and author of the highly acclaimed Mona Lisa: The History of the World’s Most Famous Painting (U.S. title, Becoming Mona Lisa).