Italy's culture minister welcomes the court's decision over Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece.

Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man will now join several other works by the Renaissance master at a blockbuster exhibition in the Louvre after an Italian court rejected an appeal against the drawing being lent to the Paris museum.

The decision, which followed a last-minute bid to stop the Vitruvian Man from leaving Italy due to its fragile nature, overturned an earlier ruling by the administrative court in Italy's northern Veneto region blocking the masterpiece from leaving its climate-controlled vault at the Accademia Gallery of Venice.

The Vitruvian Man drawing, which dates to 1490, is intended to be a focal point of the Louvre exhibition commemorating the 500th anniversary of the death of da Vinci, due to open on 24 October.

The court's decision has been welcomed by Italy's culture minister Dario Franceschini who underlined that the loan was part of an agreement between France and Italy involving the loans of priceless works by da Vinci and Raphael.

France will receive seven works by da Vinci and in exhange France will send works by Raphael for a blockbuster show at Rome's Scuderie del Quirinale next year, marking the 500th anniversary of Raphael's death.

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