  A recent report [Kiguchi {\it et al.}, Phys. Rev. B {\bf 68}, 115402 (2003)]
that the (111) surface of 5 MgO layers grown epitaxially on Ag(111) becomes
metallic to reduce the electric dipole moment raises a question of what will
happen when we have fewer MgO layers. Here we have revealed, first
experimentally with electron energy-loss spectroscopy, that MgO(111) remains
metallic even when one-layer thick, and theoretically with the density
functional theory that the metallization should depend on the nature of the
substrate. We further show, with a spin-density functional calculation, that a
ferromagnetic instability may be expected for thicker films.
