50 works of art you should see before you die

With a little help from their commenters, the Guardian's art blog lists 50 works of art you have to see during your lifetime. I think I've seen 11 or 12, but it's hard for me to remember exactly what I've seen at New York's Met and MoMA. And clearly, based on this likely geographically biased list, I need to go to France and Spain.


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I think I've seen one:

Parthenon Sculptures (Elgin Marbles) (c. 444BC), British Museum, London

And I'm not certain, I just know I went to that museum. I usually do better on these "top __" lists than this.

Ingen Angiven | Wed, 12/06/2006 - 11:45am

You didn't see Stonehenge or the Sistene Chapel during your Grand Tour?

crazymonk | Wed, 12/06/2006 - 11:48am

Stonehenge is inconvenient to get to if you don't have a car. You have to take a train and then a bus, and even then you have to stand a good distance away. If you could have walked inside I would have gone, but looking at it from a hill across the way didn't seem worth the trip. I went to Oxford and Windsor and Dover and some castles instead.

I did see the Sistene Chapel, forgot about that. I had it confused with something else. Which is rather stupid. Anyway, so, yeah, I saw two.

Ingen Angiven | Wed, 12/06/2006 - 1:19pm

I know, 'cause I went there without a car. But you're wrong about the distance thing, you get to go inside, up pretty close. You just can't get within touching distance of any of the stones.

crazymonk | Wed, 12/06/2006 - 1:49pm

what was so great about the rothko chapel, in your opinion? it was certainly eerie in there, cause it was deathly silent and all, but the paintings seemed better as backdrop than anything else. I saw all I needed to see in about 10 seconds. If there was a concert or something going on that would be swell, but by itself, eh, not so much for me. Although it was nice to get out of the sweltering houston heat.

Jon May | Wed, 12/06/2006 - 3:03pm

also, assuming i saw all the "correct" things when i went to the appropriate locations, I saw 20. Good thing I went to the Prado.

Jon May | Wed, 12/06/2006 - 3:06pm

Rothko Chapel was very peaceful, and it's worth it just to see a structure built especially for a set of paintings, but like you I had no transcendental experience there.

crazymonk | Wed, 12/06/2006 - 5:14pm

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