Officially known as La Gioconda, this Mona was donated to the Portland Museum by Reichhold in '82 unsigned and unlisted in the known works of Da Vinci. It was on public view about 10 years ago then went to the basement archives til recently when the Italian Renaissance art scholar O'Grady of the Birmingham Ala.,Museum of Art came to Portland to give a lecture. Thus they dusted it off and brought it back out.
Experts have studied the La Gioconda putting it through tests ranging from X-rays to ultraviolet scanning. The work has been dated to before 1510.
La Gioconda was painted by a lefty..and Da Vinci was left handed. The background is predominantly blues with black and browns for her cloak. The same face but slightly younger and more attractive. The Museum has members willing to fund additional research in Italy to track down La Gioconda's true provenance.If this is an original Da Vinci, it would be worth millions of dollars.
Source: Down East publication, March 2004, entitled: Portland Celebrity, pg. 12