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Mona Lisa’s remains ‘lie in Florence rubbish tip’

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Lisa Gherardini died in Florence in 1542 and was buried in the grounds of Sant’Orsola convent.

Over the centuries the Franciscan convent was used as a tobacco factory and a university teaching facility but in the 1980s a redevelopment was launched to convert it into a barracks for Italy’s tax police, the Guardia di Finanza.

The developers had no knowledge that it was the final resting place of da Vinci’s famous model – that was only discovered in 2007 – and during work to build an underground car park, the convent’s foundations were excavated, along with the crumbling remains of graves and tombs.

The rubble was then dumped in a municipal landfill site on the outskirts of Florence.

Full Story: Mona Lisa’s remains ‘lie in Florence rubbish tip’ – Telegraph

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