Greta Garbo of 1931 and 1932, respectively, and Garbo was dubbed "the greatest money-making machine ever put on screen." Garbo's close friend Mercedes de Acosta then penned a screenplay for her to portray Joan of Arc but producers rebuffed the idea and the film was shelved. After appearing in "As You Desire Me" (1932), the first of three Garbo films which co-starred Melvyn Douglas, Garbo's MGM contract expired and she returned to Sweden. After nearly a year of negotiations, Garbo agreed to renew her contract with MGM on the condition she would star in "Queen Christina" and her salary would be increased
Greta Garbo by Renoir, Rouault, Kandinsky, Bonnard, and Jawlensky. Her art collection was worth millions when she died in 1990. On 9 February 1951, she became a naturalized citizen of the United States and, in 1953, bought a seven-room apartment at 450 East 52nd Street in Manhattan, New York City, where she lived for the rest of her life. On 13 November 1963, just nine days before the assassination of President Kennedy, Garbo was a dinner guest at the White House. She spent the night at the Washington, D.C. home of philanthropist Florence Mahoney. Garbo's niece Gray Reisfield told museum specialist James