Is the Mona Lisa public domain? Painting, object and file rights

Short answer

Yes—the Mona Lisa is public domain in the United States, United Kingdom and European Union.

The Louvre’s ownership of the panel is separate, and this guide’s file permission applies only to the exact C2RMF/Commons reproduction identified below.

Artwork copyright verdict

Mona Lisa: checked, with file-level limits

Last reviewed2 October 2026

A copyright answer for Louvre INV 779 and one named C2RMF reproduction, separate from the painting’s ownership and fame.

01

Artwork copyright

Leonardo’s early-sixteenth-century painted composition is centuries beyond the standard copyright terms checked here.

02

Physical object

The French state/Louvre holds the poplar panel, inventory INV 779 (MR 316). Object ownership controls custody and access, not a new copyright in Leonardo’s composition.

Open object record ↗

03

Exact image file

The selected file is the named C2RMF reproduction on Commons, not one of the separately edited variants. Other Louvre photographs, colour corrections, crops and souvenir designs require their own file and terms checks.

Work-level matrix

Jurisdiction checks

Not a worldwide claim

United Statessupported public-domain record

The exact Commons record marks the work public domain in the US and identifies publication before 1931. The painting’s centuries-long publication history makes §303’s unpublished-work tail inapposite to this identified work, but the file is still checked separately.

United Kingdompublic-domain term

The standard literary, dramatic, musical and artistic-work term in CDPA 1988 §12 is life plus 70 years. Leonardo died in 1519; on that standard calculation this work was public domain from long before the modern statute. Moral rights and non-copyright restrictions are separate.

European Unionpublic-domain term

Directive 2006/116/EC applies a standard life-plus-70 term, calculated from 1 January after the relevant event. Leonardo died in 1519; on that standard calculation this work was public domain from long before the modern directive. National moral-rights rules remain separate.

Source file record

One exact file, not blanket permission

Open source record ↗

Upstream

Wikimedia Commons file from the Centre for Research and Restoration of Museums of France (C2RMF)

Original SHA-1

9dd1ef62e956756ac03c33b373d9d839c4894a3d

Fetched asset SHA-256

1be54ea7406b119d96900922dc18b9980491546f5f79d9c2f3914ec0d1da50ff

GeMarkt derivative

/blog/art-history/artwork-rights-mona-lisa.webp

Derivative SHA-256

b29cac542a7d1930c8a79c580ef93194bff78528764d2b011905bdecd8056bb2

Dimensions / bytes

1800 × 2635 pixels · 944,042 bytes

Rights statement

Public Domain Mark; faithful two-dimensional reproduction

Transformation

Commons 1,920-pixel preview resized to 1,800 pixels wide and converted to WebP; no crop or colour edit.

Use guidance: Use the exact C2RMF file linked here. Do not assume that every Louvre page image, scan, restoration or designed product shares its status.

Practical use

• Reuse and adapt the exact recorded reproduction where its public-domain assessment applies.
• Keep Louvre INV 779/MR 316 and the source page in the provenance record so the file is not confused with a retouched version.
• Check trademarks, personality claims, contracts and cultural-property rules separately when relevant to a particular use.

Evidence opened in this review

1. US Copyright Office: 17 U.S.C. §303 (law)
2. US Copyright Office: publication regulation (law)
3. UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 §12 (law)
4. UK IPO notice on digital images and contract terms (terms)
5. EU Directive 2006/116/EC (law)
6. EU DSM Directive Article 14 (law)
7. Louvre Collections object INV 779 / MR 316 (object)
8. Exact C2RMF/Commons file record (file)

General information, not legal advice. Re-check the exact source record, local law and any contract that applies where you use the file.

Which Mona Lisa this answer covers

The checked object is Leonardo da Vinci’s poplar-panel portrait in the Louvre, inventory INV 779 / MR 316, dated by the museum to about 1503–1519. “Mona Lisa” can also appear in the titles of copies, parodies, photographs and modern designs. Those later works may contain new authorship even when Leonardo’s composition does not.

The file here is the named reproduction from the Centre for Research and Restoration of Museums of France (C2RMF) on Commons, rather than one of the separately edited variants. That identity prevents the rights statement from drifting to a different colour-corrected or composited file.

Ownership is not copyright

The French state and Louvre possess and care for the physical panel. That gives the institution control over access, conservation, display and photography in its spaces. It does not restart Leonardo’s copyright term.

The distinction works both ways. A user may have a sound public-domain basis for Leonardo’s painting while still being bound by a contract for a particular download, or while lacking permission for a modern photograph that adds original choices. The panel above keeps the canvas, composition and file in separate rows for that reason.

Exact file and its limits

The source generator locks the original Commons SHA-1, downloads the recorded 1,920-pixel C2RMF preview, and creates a 1,800-pixel WebP without cropping or colour edits. The local SHA-256 identifies the file actually shipped by this guide.

That record does not cover every file on the Louvre website, a scan from a book, a photograph of visitors behind the barrier, or a modern restoration. It also does not make a new poster layout or brand use automatically risk-free; trademarks, contracts and other rules remain separate from copyright in the painting.

Why the rights answer is straightforward

Leonardo died in 1519. His authorship is far outside the standard UK and EU life-plus-70 terms, and the work has been published for centuries. The exact Commons page also records the US public-domain conclusion and pre-1931 publication basis.

That straightforward result is not a licence to say every old-looking image is free. The work-level answer is secure; the file-level answer remains attached to the named reproduction and revision.

A close-looking note

The portrait’s calm depends on asymmetry. One side of the distant landscape sits higher than the other, while the turn of the sitter’s body and the folded hands stabilize the foreground. Soft transitions at the eyes and mouth resist a hard outline, so expression seems to change as attention moves.

The selected file preserves the full panel and does not claim to reveal a hypothetical “original colour.” For broader context, use the Leonardo artist guide; for commercial browsing or a personal download, follow the separately labelled collection and wallpaper paths.