Marcel Duchamp's moustachioed Mona Lisa sells for $750,000 at Sotheby's

One of Marcel Duchamp’s reproductions of Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, on to which he pencilled a beard and moustache, has sold for €632,500 ($750,000) at Sotheby’s in Paris.

It was part of the sale of a collection of surrealist works owned by American Arthur Brandt, with 110 pieces fetching €3.9 million, including commission.

Duchamp’s version of the Mona Lisa was one of nine works in the sale by the French artist, who is seen as the father of conceptual art.

The Mona Lisa works are entitled L.H.O.O.Q, which in French sounds like the phrase “elle a chaud au cul”, roughly translated as “she’s horny”. It had a presale estimate of €400,000 to €600,000.

The version that sold late on Saturday was created in 1964 after the original 1919 so-called “ready made” piece.