“Salvator Mundi” by Leonardo da Vinci is the most expensive painting in the world, valued at $450.3M.
100 Mind-Blowing Da Facts
The most remote place in the world is the Tristan da Cunha islands in the Southern Atlantic Ocean. They’re 2,434km from Saint Helena, the nearest inhabited place. Imagine Mum sends you out for groceries but the local supermarket is closed. That’s a long trip.
Leonardo Da Vinci only has 15 existing paintings. Despite being one of the most proliferous painters of the Renaissance, Leonardo Da Vinci’s portfolio isn’t too extensive. Because he tended to procrastinate and experiment, Da Vinci only had a record of 15 finished paintings.
It took 12 years to paint the Mona Lisa’s lips. Leonardo da Vinci took his sweet time on his masterpiece: Mona Lisa’s pretty pucker took 12 years to paint. Yes, just the lips.
The Mona Lisa may have had eyebrows. The famous portrait may look relatively facial hair-less, but in October 2007, Pascal Cotte claimed that Leonardo da Vinci originally painted eyebrows and eyelashes on the Mona Lisa. Using a high-definition camera, the French engineer and inventor zoomed in 24 times on Mona Lisa’s face and found a single brushstroke of hair. However, whether or not this is true is one of the many mysteries of the Mona Lisa.
The biggest chocolate rabbit in the world is over 4,000 kg heavy. The largest chocolate rabbit was sculpted by Equipe da Casa do Chocolate in 2017. It was 4,000 times the size of an average chocolate bunny and had an estimated 21.2 million calories.
The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows. People always wonder why Mona Lisa doesn’t have any eyebrows. This mystery has been solved, all thanks to an engineer named Pascal Cotte. When Da Vinci painted Mona Lisa, he indeed painted her eyebrows but over time these eyebrows were eroded due to cleaning over time to the point where it’s no longer visible today.
Famous left-handed people include Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, and Barack Obama.
On the South Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha, potatoes were once used as currency.
The most expensive book ever purchased was sold for $30.8 million. It was written by Leonardo Da Vinci and was bought by Bill Gates.
Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” has her mailbox at the Louvre because of all the love letters she receives.
Leonardo da Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time.
The most expensive book ever purchased, Codex Leicester by Leonardo Da Vinci, was sold for $30.8 million to Bill Gates.