Paris-- The famous grin is gone. The Mona Lisa finally stopped smiling after over 500 years. Art lovers left the Lube Museum in tears this morning after the discovery. The museum was briefly closed 'for security reasons' but opened later, minus the missing portrait.
Onlookers described the Mona Lisa looking depressed, somber, and a little pissed-off. No damage was reported to the da Vinci masterpiece and museum officials are perplexed by the change.
"Je ne sais quoi." said museum head Franco Frogg. "Sacre bleu and cherchez la femme!" he screeched before being carted off to the newly refurbished Bastille.
Rupert Giles is head of the Britain Museum and had more constructive comments.
"It is an omen, a portent. Nothing like this ever happened before. The Mona Lisa's frown is warning us. We are all in grave danger." he said with a somber face.
"The most puzzling aspect of all this is that there is absolutely no change in the portrait, nothing was done to it. Computer tomography shows the exact same expression as before. It is us that has changed. Our frame of reference is different. Perhaps it's the Global Meltdown causing this. It is all quite troubling." he noted grimly.
Lube Museum officials expect to have the Mona Lisa back in place tomorrow. Art lovers are asked to smile at any image of the Mona Lisa and hopefully she will smile again.
