The Mona Lisa (also known as La Gioconda) (1503-1506) Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, known as Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) Oil on wood panel (77 x 53cm) Collection of the Louvre, Paris, France Recorded August 6, 1999

Beset by hordes of gawkers and imprisoned within an alarmingly sturdy alcove in a rather steamy room, The Mona Lisa is less a reverential presentation of artistic greatness and than it is the high culture equivalent of viewing a freak show on a New York City subway. While the subject of the painting is soothed by the sounds of distant streams and the occasional rustling of the fabric of her clothes, a thick glass wall spares her from the crowd's inane chatter even if it does nothing to protect her from a flashbulb frenzy that would have blinded a living person long ago. That same glass wall also prevents her from experiencing what Barthes described as the only pleasure in having one's picture taken: the sound of the shutter snapping open and shut. While it is virtually impossible to get a good look at The Mona Lisa in the flesh, one can at least obtain some satisfaction in listening to hundreds of futile attempts to record her image on film.