the monalisa is also one of the most valuable paintings in the world.it holds the guinness world record for the highest known insurance valution in history at $100 million in1962,which is worth nearly $800 million in 2017..the painting is throught to be a portrait of lisa gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo,and is in oil on a white Lombardy poplr panel. it had been believed to have been painted between 1503 and 1506; how ever,Leonardo may have continued working on it as late as 1517.recent academic work suggests that it would not have been started before 1513. it was acquired by king Francis of france and is now the property of the French Republic, on permanent display at the Louvre museum in paris since 1797....the title of the painting , which is known in english as mona lisa , comes from a description by Renaissance art historian Giorgio vasari, who wrote "Leonardo undertook to a paint, for Francesco Del Giocondo, the portrait of Mona lisa,his wife ". mona in itallian is a polite from of address originating as " ma donna" or my lady in english.this become " ma donna" and its contraction "mona" the title of the painting, through tradionally spelled "mona " is also commonly Lisa being a vulgarityb in some ltalian dialects but this is rare in english..