This photograph was taken during the United States (U.S.) tour of the Mona Lisa in 1963. Pictured in the photograph are the two people who made this U.S. tour possible, First Lady Jackie Kennedy and Georges André Malraux, the French First Minister of Cultural Affairs. In 1962, First Lady Jackie Kennedy convinced First Minister Malraux, at a White House dinner where he was the guest of honor, to loan the Mona Lisa to the U.S. This is the third image in “The Trials, Travels and Thrills of the Mona Lisa”, as this tour was the first time the Mona Lisa had ever been loaned to another country. The Mona Lisa was displayed on the Main Floor in the West Sculpture Hall of the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC from January 9th to February 3rd 1963. An estimated 500,000 people viewed the Mona Lisa. After it’s exhibition in Washington DC, the Mona Lisa went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
