[imagesource: Forbes / Michael Prince / Getty Images]

If I had to summarise what is to follow in a single word, I would go with ‘no’.

That doesn’t mean people don’t want to see it happen.

A petition on Change.org is now demanding that Jeff Bezos buy and eat the Mona Lisa.

I just checked in, and the petition has, at the time of writing, in excess of 11 000 signatures.

Rather than writing a long and elaborate section explaining why this should happen, Kane Powell, who started the petition, simply states that “Nobody has eaten the mona lisa and we feel jeff bezos needs to take a stand and make this happen.”

The story has been picked up by multiple outlets, including The New York Times:

Mr. Powell came up with the idea for the petition — which, to be clear, is a joke — while at an Applebee’s with his fiancée and two friends before the pandemic.

The group of four had dinner and started ordering from the $1 drink menu, and that’s when the ingenuity started to flow.

“Jeff Bezos was in the news at the time,” Mr. Powell said. “We were like, ‘what if he bought it and ate it?’ It would be stupid and outlandish.”

Powell went on to say that he’s making a statement about the absurdity of the wealth accumulated by Bezos and his ilk.

According to the Forbes real-time billionaire tracker, your man Jeff is worth a cool $200 billion.

When pressed for comment, Sophie Grange, the deputy director of communication at the Louvre, where the Mona Lisa is on permanent display, said “We have seen the petition but the Musée du Louvre will not comment.”

Could Bezos afford the Mona Lisa? Of course:

 In 1962, according to Guinness World Records, the Mona Lisa was assessed at $100 million, then “the highest known insurance valuation for a painting.”

In today’s dollars, that would roughly translate to over $850 million.

Image: Martin Bureau / AFP / Getty Images

Though Mr. Bezos could theoretically afford it, the Mona Lisa isn’t for sale, and France likely wouldn’t be willing to give it up.

Even if he did get his hands on the painting, Bezos would then would have to actually consume it.

That comes with its own set of problems:

“You might get indigestion, but there is nothing stopping you under U.S. law from eating the Mona Lisa if you own it,” said Amy Adler, an art law expert and professor at the New York University School of Law…

In France, droits moraux, or “moral rights,” would typically protect an artwork from such an act.

“Moral rights protect artists from the alteration, mutilation, or harm to their works that would be damaging to their reputation,” said [Stephen Urice, the director of the arts law track at the University of Miami School of Law].

However, Leonardo da Vinci’s works aren’t covered by those rights, because they were only enacted in the 19th century, and would not be retroacted to the 16th century.

Obviously, this ain’t gonna happen, but if France could be persuaded to flog the painting, perhaps it could try and get a cool $330 billion.

That’s the sum needed to end world hunger by 2030, according to a 2020 study backed by the German government.

Bezos could contribute half, and still be left with a net worth of $35 billion. The world’s second-richest person, Bernard Arnault, could cover the other half, and be left with a net worth of around $29 billion.

At that price, and with the money put to good use, I say let him eat.

[source:nytimes]