Mona Lisa unearthed: archaeologists may have found her bones

Archeologists in Florence, Italy, believe they have unearthed the bones of the real Mona Lisa.

Researchers told Discovery News they’ve discovered a skeleton they believe to be Mona Lisa underneath the altar of an abandoned nunnery, the Convent of St. Orsola.

The real Mona Lisa is believed to be Lisa Gherardini. According to the New York Daily News, Gherardini’s husband was Francesco del Giocondo, a rich silk merchant. After her husband died, Gherardini was brought to the convent by their daughter, Marietta, who was a nun. She was reportedly buried on the grounds of the convent in 1542.

While there is no concrete proof of who the real Mona Lisa is, experts believed Mona Lisa's identity was discovered after notes from 1503 were discovered in the margin of a book in which an acquaintance of Leonardo da Vinci wrote that the artist was currently working on a portrait of Lisa Gherardini, the Huffington Post reported. 

Even the search for her bones was controversial. Natalia Guicciardini Strozzi, a princess, ancestor of Gherardini's and a member of one of Florence's oldest noble families, told the Telegraph that searching for and exhuming the remains of Gherardini was "a sacrilegious act".

The bones will be tested at the University of Bologna, where scientists will use DNA to match it against the remains of her two sons, who were buried near the site, according to ABC News.

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