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In the last post we explored that the famous painting of the Mona Lisa was an example of an "individual for a small group" case since Leonardo da Vinci was commissioned by Francesco del Giocondo to paint the work for his family.
However, one may argue that today the example of the Mona Lisa has moved from an "individual for an small group" case to an "individual for big group", because anyone that visits the Louvre can enjoy viewing it.
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To prove that the Mona Lisa is part of the group an "individual for everyone", I want to present to you some very interesting statistics about the Mona Lisa, now held in the Louvre:
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- About 6 million people view the painting at the Louvre each year. Source: BBC Faces of the Week 2006-09-29.
- Visitors generally spend about 15 seconds viewing the Mona Lisa. Source: "Smile, please" guardian.co.uk. London. 2004-10-19.
- Guinness World Records lists the Mona Lisa as having the highest insurance value for a painting in history.
- It painting was assessed at US$100 million on December 14, 1962, before the painting toured the USA for several months. Taking inflation (Consumer Price Index) into account, the 1962 value would be approximately US$713 million in 2010.
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- Number of Mona Lisa items sold by the Louvre gift shop per year: 350,000. This includes 200,000 postcards, 20,000 magnets, and around 10,000 puzzles. Source: Chicago Sun-Times, 4/3/2005
- Average number of visitors the Mona Lisa receives: 1,500 per hour. The Mona Lisa is the Louvre's most popular piece of artwork. Source: Chicago Sun-Times, 4/3/2005
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- Average number of fan letters received by the Mona Lisa: One per week. Cecile Scaillierez, Mona Lisa's curator at the Louvre, says many of the letters are "bizarre." Source: Chicago Sun-Times, 4/3/2005
- Number of times the Mona Lisa has been stolen from the Louvre: 1. On Monday August 21, 1911, when the museum was closed to the public, the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre. Over two years later, an Italian art dealer named Alfredo Geri received a letter offering to sell the Mona Lisa. In December 1913, Vincenzo Peruggia, a house painter by profession, walked into Geri's gallery in Florence and office and offered the portrait for 500,000 lire. After Geri was taken to see the masterpiece which was hidden in a chest in Peruggia's hotel, Geri called the police, and the painting was reclaimed. Source: Smithsonian, 11/1/1987
- OverstockArt.com, the leader in handmade oil painting art reproductions, released a list of the top 10 oil paintings featured in the media in the last decade. Topping the list was Leonardo Da Vinci’s internationally revered Mona Lisa. Source: overstockArt. Jan. 19, 2010.
