who owns the copyright to the mona lisa
Mona Lisa replicas and reinterpretations Contemporary Mona Lisa replicas are often created in conjunction with events or exhibitions related to Leonardo da Vinci, for publicity. Her portrait, considered public domain and therefore outside of copyright protection, has also been exploited to make political statements. Known even to people with no art background, the mere use of Mona Lisa's name – immortalized in Academy Award-winning lyrics sung by Nat King Cole (Best Original Song, 1950) – is capable of stirring public interest and intrigue.[2] Aside from countless print-reproductions of Leonardo's original Mona Lisa on postcards, coffee mugs and T-shirts, her likeness has also been re-imagined using coffee, toast, seaweed, Rubik's Cubes, and computer chips, to name only a few. Now over five-hundred years since her creation, the perpetuation of Mona Lisa's influence is reinforced with every reinterpretation.[2]