Has Mona Lisa’s skull been discovered?

Archeologists are one step closer to solve the secret behind the famously enigmatic smile of the Mona Lisa, they say they have discovered the skull of the woman who posed for Leonardo's da Vinci's masterpiece in a convent burial ground in Italy.

The excavation team revealed that it had unearthed a female-sized skull in a crypt under the floor of the St Ursula convent in Florence, believed to contain the remains of Lisa Gherardini Del Giocondo.

Officials say the skull was found five feet under the convent's original floor along with other fragments of human ribs and vertebrae.

Now scientists will compare the DNA in the bones with the remains of the model's two children who were buried nearby.

“We don't know yet if the bones belong to one single skeleton or more than one. But this confirms our hypothesis that in St.Ursula convent there are still human bones and we cannot exclude that among them there are bones belonging to Lisa Gherardini,” the Daily Mail quoted archeologist Silvano Vinceti, who is in charge of the dig, as saying.

If the scientists can confirm the skull belongs to the model, forensic artists will then attempt to reconstruct her face to see how it compares to the 500-year-old version painted by da Vinci and perhaps solve the riddle of the Mona Lisa's enigmatic smile in the process.