Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is perhaps the most famous portrait in the world, but now some suspect that the woman with the mysterious smile may not be a woman after all. They are suggesting that the Mona Lisa may be a self- portrait, da Vinci in drag  . Italy's National Committee for Cultural Heritage (INCCH) is carrying out the research. They think the artist, who died in 1519, was buried at a French castle and they plan to dig up his body. Using CSI-style technology, they want to rebuild da Vinci's face. Jason Rosenfeld, a member of INCCH, says, " It shows the reason why we preserved Einstein's brain or King Tut's mummy  , which throws light on the problem we are working on." "Now we want to get the body of Leonardo. We want to see what he died of, we want to see his DNA, we want to see the size of his head, and what his facial feature were like, so we can know whether this was a self-portrait." The Mona Lisa was painted around 500 years ago. Beyond that, we know almost nothing about the painting that is now on display at the Louvre in Paris. But will the exhumation   discover the truth behind the Mona Lisa? Not likely, according to Rosenfeld. "If the French government really wants to help find out what this is about, what they should do is allow us to clean the Mona Lisa. We will learn much more from it and understand it better if we are allowed to clean the painting than by digging up a body." What's the question that the INCCH is researching on?
What da Vinci died of. Whether da Vinci liked dressing in drag. Whether the Mona Lisa was painted by da Vinci. Whether the Mona Lisa is da Vinci's self-portrait.