Three Leonardo da Vinci paintings on loan from the Louvre for the Milan Expo 2015

The Louvre in Paris has given the ok for three of its Leonardo da Vinci paintings to travel to Milan for the ambitious exhibition of the painter's works to coincide with the Milan Expo in 2015.

Leonardo lived in Milan for 17 years and, of course, his The Last Supper is painted on the walls of the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in the city.

The Expo runs from the beginning of May 2015 for six months, and the exhibition will open in April and run through to July at the Palazzo Reale, next to the Duomo.

The three works that the Louvre will send are are the “Annunciazione”, “La Belle Ferronière” and “San Giovanni Battista”.

The curators of the Milan show also asked for the loan of the painting dedicated to “Sant'Anna” but the journey is considered too risky for such a large-scale canvas.

Gramilano( Editor )

Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.

His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.