The most famous painting in the world, Mona Lisa, will be relocated while the Louvre’s salon in which she is exhibited is under repair, France Press Agency reported.

Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece will be transported less than 100 paces away to neighbouring Galerie Médicis on the night of July 16, said museum director Jean-Luc Martinez.

The fragile 500-year-old painting is very rarely handled and will remain protected by bulletproof glass in its "temporary home," the museum said.

The portrait of the portrait of Lisa Gheraldini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo will be brought back to its place just before the special Leonardo exhibition is opened at the world's largest museum in October this year.

The painting, thought to have been begun in the first years of the 16th century, has been moved very rarely since it was first housed in the Louvre in 1804. Indeed it hasn't left its walls in 45 years, and curators are strongly opposed to it doing so again, citing its fragility. It last travelled in 1974 to Russia and Japan, having crossed the Atlantic in 1964 to be shown in the United States despite the fierce protests of the Louvre's curators, Hurriyet Daily News reported.

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