How the ‘Mona Lisa’ conquered New York in 1963

On February 7, 1963, Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Mona Lisa’ made her public debut at New York’s famous Metropolitan Museum of Art, simply known as, The Met.

Hundreds queued on that chilly winter’s morning, eager for the opportunity to see one of the world’s most famous paintings.

Kept behind inch-thick bulletproof glass and under intense surveillance – including two Secret Service men, two New York City police detectives and two Museum guards – ‘La Gioconda’ ultimately attracted over one million visitors to The Met in the span of a single month.

In this charming newsreel footage, a group of schoolchildren contemplates the painting’s enduring mystery.

View the original video here.

Good Living is the Cyprus Mail’s portal of curated content from across the internet, showcasing local and global ideas, cultural highlights, and scientific and technological developments to inspire a sustainable life.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.