Mona Lisa’s twin found

A Spanish museum has discovered a copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Mona Lisa’ that one of his students painted in the studio where the masterpiece was completed.

A spokeswoman for Madrid’s Prado said the copy was done alongside the 16th-century original, which now hangs in the Louvre in Paris.

The Prado said it did not realise the significance of its copy until a recent restoration revealed hidden layers.

There are dozens of the surviving replicas of the masterpiece from the 16th and 17th centuries.

The Madrid version shows the same female figure, but prior to the restoration it lacked the landscape background and was covered with paint and varnish.