Iconic painting by da Vinci can go to Louvre

Rome: An Italian court has ruled that Leonardo Da Vinci’s iconic “Vitruvian Man” drawing can be loaned to France’s Louvre Museum, solving an ongoing cultural dispute between Italy and France. The Venice court last week had suspended the loan of the world-famous drawing, which is part of a batch of works by Leonardo and Raphael that the Italian government had agreed to send to Paris.

Wednesday’s ruling cleared the way for the loan, rejecting a complaint filed by an Italian heritage group Our Italy, which contended that the drawing was too fragile to travel and risked being damaged. The “Vitruvian Man” is currently kept in a climate-controlled vault in Venice’s Accademia Gallery and is put on public display only occasionally.