Our editors are doing great work building a list of the world’s greatest works of art. This is a really fun project - full of controversy, to be sure, but the point is to put, say, 100 works of art up there, where you can find them, and then get people to rate them or add their own. Is the Mona Lisa the greatest work of all time? Clearly there is no such thing - and there are people like me who can’t stand the painting. But then that’s largely influenced by the bullet proof glass, the reverence given to it, and the fact that you can only glimpse it through a mass of jostling cameras.
But the real value of mapping these works is that anyone with any interest in art might find themselves in a hotel not 200 yards from a really spectacular work - and what better way to prompt them to pay a visit. I have spent many days on visits to Rome, and yet never known that inside the Borghese Gallery is that fabulous work by Bernini, Apollo and Daphne. Now I know, and I’ll make sure not to miss it next time.
