A replica of Leonardo da Vinci's 'Mona Lisa' has been sold to a European collector for $3.4 million - 10 times its expected selling price

• A copy of Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" on Friday sold for $3.4 million.
• A European collector bought the replica via Christie's Auction House in Paris.
• The painting's longtime owner said it was the true "Mona Lisa."

A replica of Leonardo da Vinci's world-famous "Mona Lisa" painting on Friday sold to a European collector for about $3.4 million at Christie's Auction House.

The copy, known as the "Hekking Mona Lisa," had been expected to sell for €200,000 to €300,000 in an online auction. It sold for about 10 times that.

"This is madness, this is an absolute record for a 'Mona Lisa' reproduction," a Christie's spokesperson told Reuters.

Named after its previous owner, Raymond Hekking, the replica was believed to have been painted in the early 17th century by an Italian painter.

Hekking said he was in possession of the true "Mona Lisa," according to the auction house. He said a look-alike was returned to the Louvre Museum after the real painting was stolen in 1914.

Hekking devoted much of his life to proving the painting he bought for $4 was the true da Vinci, while the work in the Louvre was a copy, Christie's said.

"Art challenges, fascinates, sometimes obsesses," said Pierre Etienne, international director of Old Master Paintings at the auction house.

"This work and its history illustrate the fascination that the Mona Lisa and the aura of Leonardo da Vinci have always held," the auction house said.

It said the replica "is not as compelling as the work in the Louvre but it conjures something of that world and, in a world of images, in which only the strongest ones stay in our mind, allows the dream to go on."