Mona Lisa The Mona Lisa was Earth ' s most famous painting . It was painted ( multiple times ) by Leonardo da Vinci . History . Creation . Da Vinci started painting the piece in 1503 . It was originally a commission . ( COMIC : " Art Attack " ) He was still working on the piece in 1505 , and according to one source his model for the painting was Clara Oswald . The Twelfth Doctor remarked that da Vinci hadn ' t captured her likeness well but had captured her smirk . ( COMIC : " The Swords of Kali " ) According to another account , the model was a contemporary of Da Vinci . ( TV : " Mona Lisa ' s Revenge " ) Da Vinci had to borrow oil paint from Giuseppe di Cattivo , his neighbour , to finish the paintings , but this paint was in fact part of a sentient meteorite that di Cattivo had recovered . ( TV : " Mona Lisa ' s Revenge " ) Later that year , Scaroth of the Jagaroth , posing as a human known as Captain Tancredi , commissioned da Vinci to paint at least six duplicate copies of the " Mona Lisa " . While the Fourth Doctor did not destroy the six " forgeries " ( if , in fact , they could be considered forgeries , since they were all painted by da Vinci ) , he did ensure that future X - ray machines would be able to discover their provenance by writing " THIS IS A FAKE " on the blank boards each of the fakes would be painted on , and leaving a note in mirrored writing for da Vinci apologising for the state of the canvases and telling him to just paint over the words . ( TV : " City of Death " ) Fate of the painting . Da Vinci carried the original painting around with him for many years , despite it being a commission . He eventually had to sell it to King Francis in 1516 , which " broke his heart " , according to the Ninth Doctor . ( COMIC : " Art Attack " ) In 1770 , the " Mona Lisa " was in the Palace of Versailles . ( AUDIO : " Masquerade " ) The six " fakes " were sealed away in a secret cellar room inside a house in Paris until 1979 . At some point , the " original " of the seven paintings came to hang in the Louvre gallery , also in Paris . In 1979 , Scaroth , posing as Count Scarlioni , stole the one known copy from the Louvre , intending to sell all seven in an attempt to raise money to fund his time travel research . Before they could be sold off , a fire seemingly destroyed all but one of the " fakes " . It was this " Mona Lisa " that was returned to the Louvre . Duggan later bought a postcard of the " Mona Lisa " from a gift shop at the top of the Eiffel Tower . ( TV : " City of Death " ) One " Mona Lisa " was recovered after the fire and stored in the Leamington Spa Lifeboat Museum . ( GAME : " Security Bot " ) The Seventh Doctor had one of the copies of the " Mona Lisa " in his art gallery on board the TARDIS . ( AUDIO : " Dust Breeding " ) In 2009 , the " Mona Lisa " was lent by the Louvre to the International Gallery in London . Because di Cattivo ' s work , " The Abomination " , also painted with the sentient meteor , was nearby , Mona Lisa reanimated in human form and made her way out of the frame , replacing herself with Phyllis Trupp . She animated a Sontaran blaster from a painting by Clyde Langer and , along with her number one fan , Lionel Harding , went about to find The Abomination . She put various police men and Sarah Jane Smith into paintings , while she animated The Dark Rider to take care of Clyde , Luke Smith and Rani Chandra . By the time Mona Lisa found the Abomination , she realised that to set him free , she needed di Cattivo ' s Chinese Puzzle Box , which Harding destroyed . Clyde was made to draw another Puzzle Box , which she animated . Just as the Abomination rose , Luke used her energy to animate Clyde ' s drawing of K9 , who destroyed the Abomination , therefore returning Mona Lisa to her rightful place , inside her frame , where she would remain forever . ( TV : " Mona Lisa ' s Revenge " ) As late as December 2009 , the painting had been returned to the Louvre . ( COMIC : " A Date to Remember " ) The Monk had stole a copy of the " Mona Lisa " for his collection during the second Dalek invasion of Earth in the 2190s . ( AUDIO : " Lucie Miller " ) The " Mona Lisa " survived being destroyed in World War V , and was on display at the grand opening of the Oriel art gallery . The Ninth Doctor took Rose Tyler to the Oriel in the 37th century to see the " Mona Lisa " . ( COMIC : " Art Attack " ) Despite Paris being destroyed in 2086 by the Ice Warrior s , ( PROSE : " Transit " ) the painting clearly survived , since at some point during the 51st century , the Doctor helped carry the " Mona Lisa " up Mount Everest on a camel to preserve it from a war . ( PROSE : " The Art of Destruction " ) Imitations . When the Monks invaded Earth , their mind - controlling propaganda claimed that " Mona Lisa " s model was a Monk , rather than a woman . ( TV : " The Lie of the Land " ) There were at least thirteen other copies of the " Mona Lisa " held by UNIT in the Underbase in Sydney , Australia . ( COMIC : " The Age of Ice " ) A copy of the " Mona Lisa " , made of fabric or paper rather than the wooden panels the genuine articles were painted on , was seen in the art gallery entertainment zone of the Two Streams Facility on Apalapucia . The Eleventh Doctor told Rory Williams that the Apalapucian s took " pieces " of planets they liked , causing Rory to note there was " a little bit of Earth " in the gallery because of the painting . Later , while battling Handbot s , Rory smashed one over the head with the " Mona Lisa " to save Amy Pond , disabling the Handbot . ( TV : " The Girl Who Waited " ) Another copy of some kind was held in the Eleventh Doctor ' s TARDIS . ( COMIC : " The One " ) At some point in the future , a recreation of Paris called Perfect Paris was made as an example of the perfect city . In the city ' s version of the Louvre hung a replica of the " Mona Lisa " . ( COMIC : " A Date to Remember " )