Pascal Cotte with a replica of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. Photograph: Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP

The Mona Lisa’s famously enigmatic smile was originally wider and more expressive, according to new scans of the painting.

Pascal Cotte, a French engineer, used a self-designed digital camera to uncover what he claimed were 25 secrets about Leonardo’s da Vinci’s portrait.

Mr Cotte said his 240-megapixel scans revealed traces of Mona Lisa’s left eyebrow, obliterated by long-ago restoration efforts.

“The face of the Mona Lisa appears slightly wider and the smile is different and the eyes are different. The smile is more accentuated,” Mr Cotte told the Live Science website.

Read full article (Guardian, October 22, 2007)

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