成人快手

When President Macron gave a press conference at the Louvre in January 2025, you can guess what painting he was standing next to. The Mona Lisa is probably the most celebrated artwork ever made, visited by millions of tourists every year, constantly re-invented by film-makers, meme-makers and advertisers.

But for art historian James Fox, the Mona Lisa is not the greatest painting in the world, nor the greatest painting in the Louvre. For James, it's not even the greatest painting in the room. So how and why did Mona hit the big time?

In this series, James traces the twists of fate and happy accidents that pushed a handful of artworks to the forefront of global pop culture.

The story of the Mona LIsa is an eventful one. Stolen, vandalised, hidden in wartime and ruthlessly monetised for decades, the Mona Lisa has been a cultural ambassador for France, a tourist destination, a muse, a target and an advertiser's dream. It's a combination that has made her a global celebrity, seemingly impervious to shifts in cultural tastes.

To explore the Mona Lisa's journey to fame, James is in conversation with the art historian Noah Charney, author of The Theft of the Mona Lisa, and Margaret Leslie Davis, author of Mona Lisa in Camelot. Also contributing are Paris tour guide Sophie Gacheny, Benoit Roques of media production company Iconoclast and David Masterman of advertising agency VCCP.

Producer: Julia Johnson
Executive Producer: Laurence Bassett
A TBI Media production for 成人快手 Radio 4