Europe's worst kept secret - That's not the Mona Lisa

I had a conversation with a friend the other day about art in the United States. It was a well-informed conversation, but I noticed something was wrong when he finished the conversation by saying "The Mona Lisa is staying in Washington for a while longer". I asked my friend who I already know had done last year's vacation in Europe and visited many museums in Europe who he was referring to as "we". He told me he meant the United States.<br><br>I really had to think twice before I talked to him about this issue, but I decided to be subtle and polite, so I didn't want to say "The Europeans have been stealing your art for over 100 years and you never even noticed". <br><br>*So I told him that the Mona Lisa had been in the Louvre for almost 100 years now, and then I asked him if he hadn't seen it himself in Washington because he had been in Europe last year and had visited the Louvre.*<br><br>He was very surprised and asked me "So all photos from the Louvre I've ever seen are fake?" I explained to him that the Louvre is very large and has many rooms, and that the Mona Lisa is displayed in a specific room, so it's easy to take photos without the Mona Lisa.<br><br>I didn't want to ruin his vacation, but I told him that he was probably looking at the *Portrait of a Woman with a Man at a Window* by Fra Filippo Lippi.<br><br>I'm sure he has traveled to many places and this has happened to him in all of them, and I'm sure countless people have done this to him as well.<br><br>However, I would like to know if you have done something like this before.<br><br>&#x200B;<br><br>Edit: The correct title of the painting is Portrait of a Woman with a Man at a Window. It is often confused with the painting *A Young Woman with a Man at a Casement* by Sansovino. <br><br>However, *A Young Woman with a Man at a Casement* is not on display in the Louvre and the *Portrait of a Woman with a Man at a Window* is often mistaken for it.