Nude sketch of Mona Lisa may have been found in France

A charcoal sketch of a nude woman bears a “striking” resemblance to Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa and experts believe the artist is responsible for at least part of the work.

The Monna Vanna portrait, situated at the Conde Museum in Chantilly, northern France since 1862, was previously attributed to da Vinci's studio, rather than directly to the artist. But scientists at the Louvre museum in Paris have examined the sketch and believe the artist may have worked directly on the piece.

“The drawing has a quality in the way the face and hands are rendered that is truly remarkable. It is not a pale copy,” curator Mathieu Deldicque told AFP, adding: “We are looking at something which was worked on in parallel with the Mona Lisa at the end of Leonardo’s life. It is almost certainly a preparatory work for an oil painting.”

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While it may have been created as a preparatory sketch for the final version of the Mona Lisa, a few details show that the piece was not authored entirely by da Vinci, experts say.

The BBC points out that while the hands and body are almost identical, and the portraits are almost the same size, hatching on the top of the drawing near Monna Vanna's head was sketched by a right-handed person while da Vinci was left handed.