The Lady with an Ermine is a painting painted by Leonardo Da Vinci around 1489 in oil technique, using tempera, on a walnut board measuring 54.7 cm x 40.3 cm. The painting is currently housed in the Czartoryski Museum in Krakow. The lady immortalized in the painting is Cecilia Gallerani - mistress of Duke Louis Sforza and a significant figure at the Sforza court. She was a highly educated woman, revolved among the intellectual elite of Milan, was fluent in Latin and ancient Greek, and was considered one of the most outstanding Italian poets of the period. Her poems have unfortunately not survived. There is a lot of discussion what kind of animal species is in the artwork. Some claim that it is a weasel other that it is an ermine. This is due to the fact that it is difficult to unambiguously identify the animal depicted in the painting. Nevertheless, the name of the animal refers to the name of the model and to Louis Sforza, who was called an ermine. It was to his order that the portrait of his mistress was painted. The painting was in Cecilia's possession until her death in 1536.What happened to it over the next 300 years or so remains a mystery to this day. Around 1800 Prince Adam of the Czartoryski family bought the painting for his mother Isabella. The value of "Lady with an Ermine" is currently estimated at 400 million euros.