In 1963 the National Gallery in Washington exhibited da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. It was the only time the painting was ever loaned out by the Louvre, and for the occasion, had been done so directly to the president of the United States.
In 2008, I found the catalogue of this exhibition in a second hand bookstore in New York. For this piece I took the first, rather sensual but descriptive paragraph of the opening text of this catalogue, and printed it out on a simple A4 sheet of paper, thus presenting this famous woman from art history as a beautiful, but anonymous woman.
The piece was shown at various occasions and is in the possession of different collectors. I imagine some of them quite enjoy joking about having the Mona Lisa in their private collection.
