As I wrote in my August 27th La Voce article, “Leonardo Da Vinci Still Making Headlines” Leonardo was born in the Tuscan hill town of Vinci on April 15, 1452, the oldest illegitimate son of a promiscuous wealthy notary and a peasant.He died at 67 on May 2, 1519 near Amboise in France where he’d lived his last three years as a guest of the French King Francis I.

Now France and Italy are at loggerheads over who has the right to host the celebrations for the 500th anniversary of this Renaissance genius, which have been in the planning stages for two years.  In 2017 Italy agreed to lend all of its Da Vinci paintings to a blockbuster exhibition “Leonardo da Vinci, originally to be held from May 2, 2019-February 24, 2020 at the Louvre, which already owns five or the largest number in one museum: Mona Lisa, the first version of The Virgin of the Rocks, La Belle Ferronnière, The Virgin and Child with St. Anne, and St. John the Baptist.