The Mona Lisa painting has been one of the most famous paintings in the world, painted by Leonardo Da Vinci – the legend himself.
After numerous thefts, vandalism and decay, the painting has survived and is housed in the prestigious Louvre Museum in France.
Most of you might know that Mona Lisa, unlike most of the paintings, is not for sale literally because nobody knows her worth.
But there is something more interesting than that! Da Vinci was not the only one to be able to paint the Mona Lisa.
Since the early Renaissance, reproduced copies of artwork have been in-trend. In fact, even today, there are hundreds of artists around the world who are capable of creating Da Vinci Painting Replicas.
But there is a difference between being able to paint it and being able to sell it.
So, can we really sell a replica painting of the Mona Lisa?
According to the art copyright law, you paint and sell replica artworks on any artist who has been dead for more than 70 years.
Why does it, then, feel illegal to sell copies of Mona Lisa? Because it feels like we are taking somebody else’s work and calling it ours. To be honest, this is just our conscious messing with us.
But to answer the question – yes, there is no copyright protection on the original artwork of Mona Lisa. You can draw it, make a reproduction, take a photo of it and sell it. In fact, you can use it in your own works (and websites) to your heart’s content.
Copyright laws were not invented at the time when the Mona Lisa was painted, and that is pretty much why everyone prints the historical Mona Lisa on everything, including birthday cards.
In fact, during the early Renaissance, painting reproduction was absolutely in trend. It was a way of earning additional money for the artist. While their paintings were being sold and auctioned, they charged royalty for every reproduced work that others made or sold of their painting.
Much later, during the modern era, replicas became a phenomenon. Artists commissioned replicas of their own paintings, especially because the more the replicas, the higher the price of the original became.
The history of creating painting copies is nothing new, and it is being practised on multiple levels for multiple business needs.
In the year 2021, a piece of news made it to the Forbes magazine, and you would be amazed why!
A famous fake copy of the Mona Lisa, absolutely similar to the original, was sold for $3.4 Million at an auction.
The replica made even the experts question whether the real copy was still hanging in the Louvre or not.
This also creates speculation around the fact that maybe, just maybe, the painting that we see in the Louvre was never the original. After stolen for three years, maybe the thief gave back a replica to the Louvre. One never really knows!
However, the price was the most ever paid for a fake Mona Lisa, which proves that there have been other replicas that have been sold for similar prices.
This pretty much sums up a thorough answer to whether we can sell a Mona Lisa replica. Go, live your life! Sell up and earn your replicas.
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