FLORENCE (TIP): Italian archaeologists trying to solve the mystery behind one of the world’s most famous paintings have said they had found bits of bone which could have belonged to the `real’ Mona Lisa.

The team is certain that Florentine Lisa Gherardini was the mysterious woman who sat for Leonardo da Vinci’s portrait, but after years of research on skeletons unearthed in the Tuscan city , they have just a femur that might match -but no DNA to test it against.

Born in 1479, Gherardini was the wife of silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo. He is believed to have commissioned da Vinci to paint a portrait of her in 1503 -the one now hanging in the Louvre museum in Paris. Historian Silvano Vinceti, who lead the research team, said it was “a coming together of elements, from anthropological exams to historic documents, which allow us to conclude the remains probably belong to Lisa Gherardini”.