After more than five hundred years, thousands of books and millions of words written about Leonardo da Vinci, there are not many mysteries left surrounding him.

Where are Holmes, Morse and Lewis when you need them? The magnificent bronze on the banks of the Loire in Amboise poses many riddles.

In 1961, when the newly elected American President John F. Kennedy made an official visit to Paris, he didn’t impress French President Charles de Gaulle but Jackie (née Bouvier) America’s First Lady certainly impressed André Malraux, French minister of cultural affairs.

Hitler’s invasion of Europe gave him, Goering, Goebbels, Ribbentrop et al Carte Blanche to plunder priceless works of art.

On 25 August 1939 the Louvre in Paris closed its doors for three days to crate up its collection. It was so secret, the government was not told.

Until 1911, when the portrait of Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre in Paris, very few knew anything about it.

After more than five hundred years surely everything there is to be known about the most famous painting in the world is known? Isn’t it? No.

Leonardo da Vinci spent his last years not in his own country, Italy, but in France. They were very happy years, the happiest of his life.

This image needs no introduction. It’s the Virgin Mary with the baby Jesus sitting on her mother’s lap in a very awkward position that’s for sure. It may be a trick of the light but it looks as if Saint Anne’s head was added later, it seems somehow detached as if she is a figment of Mary’s imagination or a ghost but if art is anything, it’s subjective.