The legendary ‘La Gioconda’ by Leonardo da Vinci has left France solely twice in historical past. And the final nation of her international voyage was the Soviet Union.
It occurred in 1974, when Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka allotted as a lot as $300 million to France to advertise Japanese research within the nation. Part of this beneficiant deal is alleged to have been a promise by French President Georges Pompidou to launch the valuable ‘Mona Lisa’ for exhibition in Japan.
Irina Antonova, director of the Pushkin Museum of Art in Moscow, realized that the portray could be returning to France, flying over Moscow. She then turned to Ekaterina Furtseva, the Minister of Culture of the USSR, with a request to assist prepare an exhibition. And she promised to attempt to negotiate with the French ambassador, as, in her personal phrases, he was in love together with her.
So, the masterpiece arrived within the USSR and stayed there for 45 days. During this time, the ‘Mona Lisa’ was seen by 300 thousand folks, a lot of whom stood in line for 7-8 hours to get into the museum.
The strictest circumstances for preserving the portray had been noticed: temperature, humidity and, most significantly, security. The exhibition handed with out incident, aside from one episode. Feeling empathetic, one of many guests threw a bouquet to Gioconda, which triggered an alarm. Armed guards instantly ran in, however, as quickly because the state of affairs cleared up, the girl was launched.
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