The American Spectator

TODAY MONA LISA is the ultimate in kitsch. Artists vie to see who can do the most outrageous parody, advertising studious labor to come up with the funniest way to sell everything from aperitifs to airlines, golf clubs to strips that hold your nasal passages open. Collectors have catalogued nearly 400 advertising uses of the image and counting, along with at least 61 products called Mona Lisa in 14 countries, from rosé wine and chocolate to cigars, cheese, hairpins, potatoes, corsets, and beer.

Though he’s no high-flying art critic, Jean Margat has his own answer to the painting’s mythic status. A retired geologist, Margat from his home near Orleans presides over The Friends of Mona Lisa, a club of serious collectors of Giocondiana. His own vast, house-filling collection includes Mona Lisa T-shirts, posters, ballpoint pens, coffee mugs, drink coasters, condoms, panty hose, clocks, matchbooks, and thimbles bearing The Face. “There’s no way you can get away from it today,” he told me cheerfully. “Mona Lisa has an enormous recognition factor, like the Eiffel Tower or a top model. For better or worse, I’m afraid she still symbolizes Western art.”

Well, it could be worse. She’s really pretty good-looking.