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Year in, year out, countless thousands of men and women
spend a small fortune flying across the globe to visit Paris in
order to join a queue to be allowed, a group at a time, to
enter a room to catch a glimpse of the most famous painting
in the world, the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. This
painting has been described as 'the best known, the most
visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the
most parodied work of art in the world'.1 And for a few
minutes, those who have laid out a great deal of money, and
have gone to so much trouble and personal inconvenience,
are allowed into the room where they may feast their eyes on
the masterpiece.