re: Seriously, what makes the Mona Lisa such a big deal?

quote:

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1. Da Vinci kept it his entire life.
2. Acquired by a French King.
3. Owned by Napoleon.
4. Stolen from the Louvre and lost for years.

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the combination of the good techniques already describes plus the history of the piece itself created a perfect mystique around it to give it the status it is today.

i mean really, pretty much most things considered of greatness or value are partly only so because of some arbitrary designation man assigned to it. once a few people start claiming something is great it doesnt take long to snowball.