Editing Mona Lisa (section)

===Fame===
In the 21st century, the ''Mona Lisa'' is considered the most famous painting in the world, a [[destination painting]]. Until the 20th century, it was one among many highly regarded artworks.<ref name="riding">{{cite news|author=Riding, Alan|date=6 April 2005|title=In Louvre, New Room With View of 'Mona Lisa'|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/06/arts/design/06lisa.html|url-status=live|access-date=7 October 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110625130936/http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/06/arts/design/06lisa.html|archive-date=25 June 2011|issn=1553-8095}}</ref> Once part of [[King Francis I of France]]'s collection, the ''Mona Lisa'' was among the first artworks to be exhibited in the Louvre, which became a national museum after the French Revolution. Leonardo began to be revered as a genius, and the painting's popularity grew in the mid-19th century when French intelligentsia praised it as mysterious and a representation of the [[femme fatale]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Sassoon|first=Donald|title=Why is the Mona Lisa Famous?|url=http://podcast.blogs.latrobe.edu.au/2014/01/21/26-why-is-the-mona-lisa-famous/|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150704044849/http://www.latrobe.edu.au/marketing/assets/podcasts/2008/opinion-nov2808-audio.mp3|archive-date=4 July 2015|access-date=20 January 2014|publisher=La Trobe University Podcast}}</ref> The [[Baedeker]] guide in 1878 called it "the most celebrated work of Leonardo in the Louvre",<ref name="Sassoon">{{cite journal|author=Sassoon, Donald|year=2001|title=Mona Lisa: the Best-Known Girl in the Whole Wide World|journal=[[History Workshop Journal]]|edition=vol 2001|volume=2001|issue=51|page=1|doi=10.1093/hwj/2001.51.1|issn=1477-4569}}</ref> but the painting was known more by the [[intelligentsia]] than the general public.<ref name="npr2011">{{cite news|date=30 July 2011|title=The Theft That Made The 'Mona Lisa' A Masterpiece|language=en|work=All Things Considered|publisher=NPR|url=https://www.npr.org/2011/07/30/138800110/the-theft-that-made-the-mona-lisa-a-masterpiece|access-date=24 August 2020}}</ref>

The 1911 theft of the ''Mona Lisa'' and its subsequent return was reported worldwide, leading to a massive increase in public recognition of the painting. During the 20th century, it was an object for mass reproduction, merchandising, lampooning, and speculation, and was claimed to have been reproduced in "300 paintings and 2,000 advertisements".<ref name="Sassoon" /> The ''Mona Lisa'' was regarded as "just another Leonardo until early last century, when the scandal of the painting's theft from the Louvre and subsequent return kept a spotlight on it over several years."<ref>{{cite news|last=Gopnik|first=Blake|date=7 May 2004|title=A Record Picasso and the Hype Price of Status Objects|newspaper=The Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2004/05/07/a-record-picasso-and-the-hype-price-of-status-objects/91826269-6a9e-42a4-91e8-3ec3aed10510/|url-status=live|access-date=28 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161129023833/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2004/05/07/a-record-picasso-and-the-hype-price-of-status-objects/91826269-6a9e-42a4-91e8-3ec3aed10510/|archive-date=29 November 2016}}</ref>

[[File:JFK, Marie-Madeleine Lioux, André Malraux, Jackie, L.B. Johnson, unveiling Mona Lisa at National Gallery of Art.png|thumb|''(Left to right)'' US President [[John F. Kennedy]], [[Madeleine Malraux]], [[André Malraux]], [[Jacqueline Kennedy]], and [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] at the unveiling of the ''Mona Lisa'' at the [[National Gallery of Art]] during its visit to Washington, D.C., 8 January 1963]]
From December 1962 to March 1963, the French government lent it to the United States to be displayed in New York City and Washington, D.C.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Mona Lisa|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/pubs/bulletins/1/pdf/3257982.pdf.bannered.pdf|access-date=8 January 2018|publisher=[[Metropolitan Museum of Art]]|archive-date=19 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180319165706/https://metmuseum.org/pubs/bulletins/1/pdf/3257982.pdf.bannered.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Stolow1987">{{cite book|last=Stolow|first=Nathan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AwbGoXofgtYC|title=Conservation and exhibitions: packing, transport, storage, and environmental consideration|publisher=Butterworths|year=1987|isbn=978-0-408-01434-2|page=188|access-date=10 October 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121005110125/http://books.google.com/books?id=AwbGoXofgtYC|archive-date=5 October 2012|url-status=live}}</ref> It was shipped on the new ocean liner [[SS France (1961)|SS ''France'']].<ref>{{cite web|date=4 February 2013|title=Today in Met History: February 4|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/blogs/now-at-the-met/features/2013/today-in-met-history-february-4|access-date=8 January 2018|publisher=[[Metropolitan Museum of Art]]}}</ref> In New York, an estimated 1.7&nbsp;million people queued "in order to cast a glance at the ''Mona Lisa'' for 20 seconds or so."<ref name="Sassoon" /> While exhibited in the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], the painting was nearly drenched in water because of a faulty sprinkler; the painting's bullet-proof glass case protected it.<ref>{{cite web|date=13 January 2013|title=Another art anniversary: Mona Lisa comes to New York! And she's almost drowned in a sprinkler malfunction|url=http://www.boweryboyshistory.com/2013/01/another-art-anniversary-mona-lisa-comes.html|access-date=8 January 2018|publisher=boweryboyshistory.com}}</ref> In 1974, the painting was exhibited in Tokyo and Moscow.<ref name="Bohm-Duchen2001">{{cite book|last=Bohm-Duchen|first=Monica|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9790520233781|title=The private life of a masterpiece|publisher=University of California Press|year=2001|isbn=978-0-520-23378-2|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9790520233781/page/65 65]|access-date=10 October 2010|url-access=registration}}</ref> In 2014, 9.3&nbsp;million people visited the Louvre.<ref>{{cite web|author=The French Ministry of Foreign affairs|title=The Louvre, the most visited museum in the world (01.15)|url=http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/french-foreign-policy/tourism/events/article/the-louvre-the-most-visited-museum|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222074901/http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/french-foreign-policy/tourism/events/article/the-louvre-the-most-visited-museum|archive-date=22 December 2015|website=France Diplomatie :: Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development}}</ref> Former director [[Henri Loyrette]] reckoned that "80&nbsp;percent of the people only want to see the ''Mona Lisa''."<ref>{{cite news|date=11 October 2009|title=On a Mission to Loosen Up the Louvre|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/arts/design/11voge.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161224172935/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/arts/design/11voge.html|archive-date=24 December 2016|work=The New York Times|access-date=5 December 2024|issn=1553-8095}}</ref>