What was the insured value of the Mona Lisa in 1962?

The Mona Lisa was insured for $100 million in 1962. That assessment was made before the painting’s 1962–1963 exhibition tour in the United States, when it traveled from France to New York and Washington, D.C.

The figure made the Mona Lisa the most highly valued painting known at the time. The French government ultimately did not buy an insurance policy; instead, it spent more than the premium would have cost on extraordinary security measures for the loan. The painting was transported aboard the ocean liner SS France and displayed behind protective glass.

The often-seen $1 billion figure is not the original 1962 valuation. It is an inflation-adjusted modern equivalent, not the amount assigned to the painting in 1962. The Mona Lisa is also effectively impossible to sell today: as part of France’s public collections, it is protected by French heritage law and cannot ordinarily be deaccessioned.