On This Day: JFK greets Mona Lisa to America after painting leaves Europe for first time

JANUARY 8, 1963: President John F Kennedy welcomed the arrival of the Mona Lisa in America on this day in 1963, after the most famous painting in the world left Europe for the first time.

The masterpiece, which had been in France ever since Italian genius Leonardo da Vinci finished it there in 1517, was given a glittering reception in Washington.

It was also attended by First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, who persuaded French leader Charles de Gaulle to loan the Mona Lisa despite tensions between the two countries.

A U.S. News of the Day newsreel filmed the seemingly happy-yet-haunted fashion icon viewing a subject who was also renowned for her enigmatic smile.

Her husband, President Kennedy, followed and later spoke to the elegantly dressed guests at the National Gallery of Art and greeted French arts minister Andre Malraux.

He made a joke about France’s refusal to buy American nuclear weapons and President de Gaulle’s insistence of building an independent military force.

Mr Kennedy said: “Mr Minister, we in the United States are grateful for this loan from the leading artistic power in the world.

“But I want to make it clear that, grateful as we are for this painting, we will continue to press ahead with the effort to develop an independent artistic force and power of our own.”

The Mona Lisa, which was also renowned for a daring theft in 1911, spent three months in the U.S. – also being shown in New York – before returning to France.

The masterpiece, thought to be a portrait of silk merchant’s wife Lisa del Giocondo, began its life in either 1503 or 1504 in Florence.

[On This Day: Pablo Picasso dies after suffering heart attack]

But it remained unfinished when da Vinci took the Mona Lisa to France in 1616 following an invite by King Francis I to live in Château du Clos Lucé.

The Italian, who was also a famed mathematician, architect and engineer, finally completed it a year later.

After da Vinci’s death in 1519, Francis, who was then the leading patron of the arts in Europe, bought the Mona Lisa from the artist’s pupil Salai for 4,000 gold coins.

The tiny picture, which measures just 2ft 6in by 1ft 10in, was then moved to the king’s Palace of Fontainebleau and later Versailles.

Following the French Revolution, it became the Republic of France’s property and it has mostly been on display in the Louvre museum in Paris since 1797.

It was removed for safety during the Franco-Prussian and Second World War, and briefly hung on Napoleon’s bedroom wall.

[On This Day: ‘Cursed’ Hope Diamond is donated to Smithsonian Museum in Washington]

And, most notably of all, it was stolen from the Louvre in 1911, the incident that did the most to ensure the Mona Lisa became the most recognised paining in the world.

Photographs of the masterpiece were featured on the front pages of international newspapers for two years until Italian handyman Vincenzo Puruggia was caught.

“If a different one of Leonardo's works had been stolen, then that would have been the most famous work in the world – not the Mona Lisa,” Cambridge art historian Professor Noah Charney told CNN in 2011.

“There was nothing that really distinguished it per se, other than it was a very good work by a very famous artist - that's until it was stolen.

“The theft is what really skyrocketed its appeal and made it a household name.”

[On This Day: John F Kennedy assassinated]

The Mona Lisa, which has been valued at $760million, now attracts 9.7million visitors a year to the Louvre.

Other than it 1963 trip to America, it has only left France on two other occasions: to Tokyo and Moscow, both in 1974.

French authorities have insisted that she will never go on tour ever again.