ANOTHER MONA LISA

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 111, 23 February 1950, Page 5

ANOTHER MONA LISA

PAINTING OWNED BY U.S. CLERGYMAN NEW YORK, Feb. 21. Another painting of the famous Mona Lisa has been discovered, according to an art expert, rvho said he valued it at 1,000,000 dollars. The owner said the painting* had been entrusted by Marie Antoinette to one of his ancestors, who brought it from France to the' United States 153 years ago. Dr. Thomas Judson, former curator of the Vatican art collection, said he had authenticated the painting by Strays, infra-red photographs and other., laboratory tests. “This painting, in my opinion, _ is by the hand of Leonardo da Vinci, and was one he began and worked upon while perhaps doing the picture now hanging in the Louvre, Paris,” Dr.; Judson said. He thought the painting bad been completed not later than 1500. Mona Lisa bad apparently posed for it while still saddened and deeply affected by the death of her baby. He believed the Louvre version had been finished later, added Dr. Judson. The owner of the painting, Dr. Ambrose Vernon, a retired clergyman of New Hampshire, said he had not bothered to have the painting checked earlier because he then had no intention of selling it. ’ “It seemed more like a dearly loved member of the family than a material possession, but now it has become a 1,000,000-dollar property, it must be kept in a bank vault,” said Dr. Vernon.