BEIJING, April 22 (Xinhua) -- No chance to visit the Louvre? Impossible to get close to the Mona Lisa?

Using digital scanning and printing technologies, an exhibition now brings high-definition, full-sized replicas of 17 masterpieces by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci to Beijing.

The exhibition, "Art of Leonardo Opera Omnia," is presented through Chinese and Italian collaboration at the Central Academy of Fine Arts Art Museum in Beijing.

The displayed copies mimic most representative paintings of the Renaissance artist housed in top museums and cultural relic sites around the world -- including the mural of The Last Supper in Milan and the portrait Mona Lisa in Paris.

Calling it "an impossible encounter," the Italian Cultural Institute in Beijing, one of the organizers, said the exhibition enables viewers to study Da Vinci's masterpieces in one place at one time and examine them in great detail.

The exhibition will be open until May 23 in Beijing before heading to Guangzhou and then other Asian cities, organizers said.