Inspired by a purported "original version" of the Mona Lisa, identical to the final portrait in all respects except that the reason for Mona's enigmatic smile is that she is petting a fat and smug-looking cat which is sprawled in her lap…. This probably computer-enhanced version was captioned "Art historians working on the Mona Lisa have discovered the moggy that was overpainted by later cat haters"
To my great pleasure this sparked off a productive debate on the nature and longevity of Lancre Greebos (I discussed this in a chapter of my tale "Gap Year Adventures", but some new ideas were introduce that I hadn't even considered about cats, time, the Schrodinger Effect and other possibilities concerning being feline in Lancre).
Rediscovered: an alternative version of the Mona Ogg painted by Leonard of Quirm.
Sir Reynold Stitched is "extremeeleah excahted" about the discovery and is piecing together the provenance. His initial inquiries suggest that the model was "really chuffed" that the artist had managed to include her pet cat and said it was really cute that he'd managed to depict Greebo just as she sees him. However, she thought it made her look too conventionally attractive and he hadn't got the smile right, so could we have another go, Len?
Greebo the cat was less impressed, pointing out with unmistakeable body language that being portrayed as a fat neutered old tom with both eyes and no scars was, to his feline mind, something of an insult and would detract from his prowl-cred if any other cat in town got to see it, so paint it over right now, chum, you get me?
Leonard compromised with a layer of fast-drying and easily stripped water-based emulsion, but very carefully hid the blank canvas away for re-use later.
Indeed, he only just rediscovered it in his attick studio at the Palace, stripped the white topcoat away just out of interest to see what was there, remembered, and asked the Royal Art Gallery if it might be of interest, if not he'd strip the lot right down to the canvas and use it for something else, I mean, you've got the final version, after all.
Sir Reynold is said to have gone extremely quiet and reflective for a second or two, then wobbled slightly, and then recovered from his shock to quickly state that he was sure the Royal Art Gallery could find a spare piece of wall to hang the picture.