Florence art advocates have welcomed a sentiment expressed by George Clooney, who recently commented that Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa ought to be returned to Italy. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the A-list actor and Italophile made the remarks during a recent visit to Milan, where he was promoting his latest film The Monuments Men, about a team tapped to save artistic masterpieces from destruction by the Nazis. Clooney and his co-stars, including Bill Murray and Matt Damon, posed for photos in front of Leonardo’s The Last Supper, prompting his comments.
Silvano Vinceti, who is behind a current project aiming to identify the sitter for the iconic painting, responded well to Clooney’s remarks. On February 28, he spoke on behalf of a committee that hopes to bring the Mona Lisa back to Florence from the Louvre in Paris, claiming that Clooney’s comments ‘strengthen [this] campaign.’
Clooney’s Hollywood clout and well-known love for Italy could potentially lend momentum to the project. Vinceti invited him to encourage other stars to support the two-year campaign to bring the painting back to Florence for one month. It has been displayed only once in Italy, in 1913, after being stolen by an Italian patriot.
