From Publishers Weekly
The 1963 American exhibition of the Mona Lisa in New York City and Washington, D.C., was America's first blockbuster art show, and Davis recounts in numbing detail the negotiations, preparations, flummoxes and successes of the exhibit. The exhibition was masterminded by the diplomatically savvy Mrs. Kennedy, whose personal relationships with French cultural minister André Malraux and National Gallery director John Walker overcame negative French press and concerns over subjecting a fragile artwork to a transatlantic journey. Heavily guarded and packed in a custom strong box, the Mona Lisa traveled in a first-class cabin on the USS
France. Though Walker planned the exhibit with military precision, the opening ceremony was chaotic, and the painting was badly hung and poorly lit. Although Davis's (
Rivers in the Desert) tale of the inner workings of a major art exhibition has its moments, it's undermined by padding (like the text of an imagined interview of
LaGioconda by a newspaper reporter with nothing to report) and the author's fawning over Jackie. 16 pages of b&w photos.
(Nov. 15) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
Kirkus Reviews
“Jackie lovers will be thrilled.”
The Women on the Web, September 2008
“Margaret Davis is known for her fascinating histories and this is a recent one with a gloss, chock-full of glamour, big rich names, super philanthropy, a dedicated woman who was willing to trade her charm for a few Cézannes in the White House and the most famous painting in the world for the National Gallery…An engaging and dynamite story that I had never known and, of course, I thought I knew everything. This is a really important little addition to American museum and art history.”
Newsday, 10/12/08
“Offers an intriguing sketch of Jackie - a woman as enigmatic as the Mona Lisa herself.”
Bookpage, October 2008
“Well written, extensively researched and meticulously rendered—a masterpiece in its own right.”
ABA newsletter, Shelf Awareness, Columbus Post-Dispatch, November 2008
“[An] indie favorite.”
USA Today, 12/11/08
“Davis tells the tale in charming fashion.”
New York Observer, 12/19/08
"Ms Davis' description...makes you dizzy with nostalgia...I would call Mona Lisa in Camelot escapist nonfiction--except that it's firmly grounded in historical fact, and its triumphant heroine, though she's the stuff of fantasy, is as real as you and me."
