I found the "box" about the Mona Lisa in the Charles Flores piece entitled "Careful what you wish for" quite amusing on several counts. The first is the one mentioned by Flores: that the Mona Lisa was in fact sold to the King of France by Leonardo or his direct heirs. Therefore, Italian demands to have it back are ill-founded, despite French "provocation". But there is a corollary to that. In 1911, an Italian carpenter working in Paris did in fact steal the Mona Lisa from the Louvre and carried it off to Italy, offering it for sale to the Director of the Uffizi gallery in Florence. The Director, once he got over the initial shock, contacted the police; the carpenter was arrested and the Mona Lisa was restored to its traditional place in the Louvre.

Fast forward to the early years of this millennium. There is an antiquarium (museum) on the site of Lokris Epizephyri, one of the Greek towns of Magna Grecia - close to the modern town of Locri on the south east coast of Calabria. I asked at the desk why the museum does not have any hint of the existence of an Archaic style marble seated figure of Persephone, which was spirited away from Lokris by locals after accidental discovery by a farm labourer on a site close to the Temple of Persephone, the patron of Lokris. After many vicissitudes, which included a near-miss from being turned into lime in a Taranto kiln, exhibition in Paris, return to Italy, and acquisition by a Swiss impresario, the seated Persephone was purchased by the Berlin museum in 1916, the money being raised by public subscription to which even Kaiser Wilhelm II contributed. And there Persephone remains, with the label of "Goddess from Taranto".

The person at the desk said Italy could not possibly start picking quarrels with her European neighbours. Was I suggesting that the Italians declare war on France for the return of the Mona Lisa for instance? After pointing out that the Mona Lisa was an entirely different case, I mentioned the fact that the then Minister of Culture Dario Francheschini had just recovered the Morgantina Venus from the Getty museum and suggested that much could be done before any formal demands for a physical return need be made. For a start, Antiquarium could have a photographic Persephone exhibit in the entrance hall to target, among others, the many German tourists that visit; Lokris could talk to Berlin about a proper labelling of the actual statue; a period of loan, perhaps; use of modern, non-destructive methods to make a copy of the seated Persephone for display at Lokris. Lokris promised to "think" about 'it". But two years ago, when I last visited the place the only result of that 'thought' was a cardboard silhouette of the Berlin Persephone - with no indication of provenance - as a background to an exhibition of 'Persephone' jewellery.