Nude 'Mona Lisa' may be by Leonardo, say experts

A nude drawing that bears a striking resemblance to the "Mona Lisa" was done in Leonardo da Vinci's studio and may be the work of the master himself, a French museum said Monday.

Experts at the Louvre in Paris, where the world's biggest collection of Leonardo's work is held, have been examining a charcoal drawing known as the "Monna Vanna" which has long been attributed to the Renaissance painter's studio.

But the charcoal preparatory work for a painting of a semi-nude woman, held at the Conde Museum at Chantilly north of Paris, may now have to be reclassified.

"There is a very strong possibility that Leonardo did most of the drawing," Mathieu Deldicque, a curator at the Paris museum, told AFP.

"It is a work of very great quality done by a great artist," added Deldicque, who initiated a investigation over several months by historians and scientific specialists at the renowned C2RMF laboratory under the Louvre.

The large drawing has been held since 1862 in the huge collection of ...