Famous Da Vinci painting may not leave Poland - minister

The Lady with an Ermine, a famous Leonardo Da Vinci painting kept in the National Museum in Krakow, in southern Poland, may not be lent abroad, just as the Mona Lisa is not, Polish Culture Minister Piotr Glinski told private radio station RMF FM on Friday. Glinski was asked whether in his correspondence with the Louvre Museum director he had actually offered to lend the museum The Lady with an Ermine in exchange for the Mona Lisa. Glinski said "the story was publicly presented" and he had said it in "an anecdotal way." "The Louvre's director twice asked the National Museum in Krakow to lend The Lady with an Ermine. Twice he received a well-mannered, polite answer, more or less the same that he's been sending all the time all over the world since 1974, because the Mona Lisa has not been lent since 1974," the minister said.