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Mona Lisa landscape location mystery 'solved'

A hidden clue in Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa identifies the exact location of the landscape which provides the background to the world's best known painting, an Italian art historian claims.

Carla Glori believes that a three-arched bridge which appears over the left shoulder of the woman with the enigmatic smile is a reference to Bobbio, a village which lies in rugged hill country south of Piacenza, in northern Italy.

Her theory is based on the recent discovery by another art historian, Silvano Vinceti, of the numbers 7 and 2 artfully concealed in the span of the stone bridge.

Miss Glori believes the numerals are a reference to 1472, the year in which a devastating flood destroyed Bobbio's bridge.

Historical records show that the bridge, known as the Ponte Gobbo or Ponte Vecchio (the Old Bridge), was swept away when the River Trebbia burst its banks that year....

Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)