1 The controversial appropriation of the Mona Lisa by King Francis I and its consequences with regard to the potential claim of ownership of the painting by the descendants of Leonardo da Vinci By Robert CASANOVAS Honorary Associate Professor Member of the Society of Men of Letters President of the NGO International Restitutions When Leonardo da Vinci had finished the portrait of the Mona Lisa, he was certainly far from imagining that when he died King Francis I would monopolize it by using the right of windfall and that his disciple Francisco Melzi would get his hands on his other paintings, after having probably forged a forgery of letters and an apocryphal will. He was even further from suspecting that his portrait would become the most expensive and famous in the world, protected under armored glass in a museum visited every year by millions of people from all over the world. He could not have imagined that five centuries later the story of this portrait would resurface before the highest French administrative court in order to restore not only what is right in the face of the monarch's arbitrariness with regard to the legality of the Louvre Museum's collections, but also in the face of the inheritance rights of his descendants. 1 The circumstances of the appropriation of the painting The Louvre Museum exhibits in its painting department the portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo, known as the Mona Lisa or 1 The French Council of State has been seized of a request for a declaration of non-existence of the decision taken by King François 1st to appropriate the Mona Lisa under the right of windfall and a request for removal from the inventory of the Louvre Museum on behalf of Leonardo da Vinci's descendants. In decision no. 491862 of 14 May 2024 (10th chamber), the Council of State declared this request inadmissible and decided that "only the legitimate owners had an interest, if necessary, in bringing legal Mona Lisa painted by Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, known as Leonardo da Vinci. The artist, who was pensioned and lodged by the king at the manor of Cloux (now the Clos Lucé), near Amboise, and above all the legend that made him die in the arms of the sovereign, led us to believe that the Mona Lisa had been acquired by the king for hard cash, or even offered to the latter. The greatest doubts exist as to the conditions under which Francis I came into possession of the painting. It is likely that the painting was incorporated into the private domain of the Crown under the right of windfall. It appears that in order to be able to dispose of his property and escape the right of windfall, this old sovereign right by virtue of which the property of a childless foreigner dying in France fell ipso facto into the hand of the king, Leonardo da Vinci, should have obtained a letter of naturality from Francis I. Under the Ancien Régime, the foreigner was distinguished from the "French natural" by his birth outside the kingdom. At that time, jus soli was the necessary condition for being recognized as French from birth. Through this definition, it must be understood that a person born of foreign parents in the kingdom of France is considered to be French. On the other hand, a person born of French parents in another country cannot claim to be French. The status of foreigner imposes a certain number of constraints and makes the foreigner a godsend. Laurent Bouchel, a jurist of the early seventeenth century, says in this regard: "the right of windfall was introduced in France [...] to know him who was born in the kingdom and who was not born of it, yet came to dwell there, and to differentiate between the one and the other." 2 The aubain, at the legal level, is marked by the impossibility of passing on one's property to one's heirs. The only way for him to escape these constraints is action to obtain its restitution". Decision published on the arianeweb database of the website of the Council of State https://conseil-etat.fr – Conclusions of the public rapporteur Laurent Domingo. This judgment is currently the subject of an appeal. before the European Court of Human Rights. 2 "The General Customs of the Baillage of Senlis" by Laurent Bouchel, Lawyer at the Parliament of Paris (1601 – Editions Rolé Boutonnet)