The Search For The Mona Lisa

Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa portrait in the Louvre is not the Mona Lisa. That is the conclusion of The Search for the Mona Lisa, a new TV special narrated by Morgan Freeman and produced by Pantheon Studios. Timed to coincide with the 500^th anniversary of Leonardo’s death on May 2, 2019, the film shows that the portrait has become the center of a swirling controversy. If she is not the Mona Lisa, then who is she? Why did Leonardo da Vinci paint her?

Using newly discovered evidence, and featuring Italian star Alexandro Demcenko as Leonardo, the film is a thriller-like pursuit for the real identity of the most famous portrait in the world.

The film is based on the book The Da Vinci Legacy, published by Apollo Publishers and written by art historians Jean-Pierre Isbouts and Christopher Brown. The book was optioned by Pantheon Studios, the producers of The Search for the Last Supper, which aired on Public Television during Easter of 2018. Once again, this film production relies on carefully staged re-enactments with a period cast of over 60 actors, filmed on location in Italy and France.

Peter Xifio as the elderly Leonardo da Vinci at the court of Amboise, France

The film also features the leading experts of our day, including Vincent Delieuvin, Curator at the Louvre; Arnold Nesselrath, Curator at the Vatican Museums; Larry Keith, Keeper and Conservator at the National Gallery (London); Prof John Asmus, UC San Diego; and art connoisseur Dr. Christopher H. Brown, co-author of The Da Vinci Legacy.

Vincent Delieuvin, Curator at the Louvre

The film is hosted by Dr. Jean-Pierre Isbouts, a bestselling National Geographic historian and doctoral professor at Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara, California. He is the author of six hard-cover editions in his National Geographic Biblical History series – including The Biblical World, The Story of Christianity, and Archaeology of the Bible – which sold over 1.5 million copies. Dr. Christopher Brown and he also wrote Young Leonardo, a provocative revision of Leonardo da Vinci’s early years, which includes the discovery that a copy of Leonardo’s Last Supper in a convent in Belgium was actually painted by Leonardo and his workshop for King Louis XII.

This is the trailer for The Search for the Mona Lisa, produced by Pantheon Studios of Santa Monica based on the book The Da Vinci Legacy, airing Spring of 2019.