Frenchman Gave In to an Urge

I would like to remind Richard Eder, the Los Angeles Times’ best book reviewer in my opinion, that it was not the Belgian Rene Magritte who painted the mustache on the Mona Lisa, as he indicated in his review of “After the Ball Is Over” (View, Oct. 2), but rather, the Frenchman Marcel Duchamp. No doubt the young Duchamp grew especially tired of the adulation accorded La Gioconda, living so close to her, and gave in to his urge to deface the painting if only by proxy.

MEL ROSENBERG

Principal Librarian

Art, Music and Recreation

Department

Los Angeles