An artist claims to have cracked a 500-year-old mystery surrounding the Mona Lisa - by spotting a series of zoo animals hidden in the painting.

Ron Piccirillo believes it is possible to see the heads of a lion, an ape and a buffalo floating in the air around the subject's head along with a crocodile or snake coming out of the left hand side of her body.

The amateur oil painter and graphic designer based in New York says he followed a series of instructions set out by the artist Leonardo da Vinci to decipher the image and claims his discovery cracks open the meaning of the work, painted in 1519.
That the Mona Lisa is actually a representation of envy.

Ron Piccirillo believes that animals, including lion (top right), an ape (top left) and a buffalo (bottom right) are visible if you turn the Mona Lisa onto its side

As you look at the painting on its side, you can just about make out the shape of a lion to the top right, next to her cheek