In today’s news on “the internet is a strange place,” there is a petition online requesting that billionaire Jeff Bezos buy and then eat the Mona Lisa. That’s right: There are apparently people who want to see the world’s richest man eat the world’s most famous painting. The petition is only a few hundred signatures short of its goal.
The Petition To Have Jeff Bezos Eat The Mona Lisa
What started as a joke on Reddit now has a surprising number of supporters. Reddit user Kane Powell started this odd petition suggesting that Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos buy and then eat the Mona Lisa. The famous Leonardo da Vinci painting is currently hanging in the Louvre in Paris, France. Why? According to the petition:
“Nobody has eaten the mona lisa and we feel jeff bezos needs to take a stand and make this happen.”
At the time of writing this, the petition has 9,296 signatures, making it less than 800 short of its 10,000 signature goal. However, the signatures are rising rapidly.
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How The Idea Came To Be
According to VICE, the idea to eat the world’s most prized painting, which Da Vinci carried with him across Italy to France, came about in a conversation between some friends in a Maryland Applebee’s.
“From what I remember, some friends and I were all at Applebee’s, kind of when COVID had just started,” Powell told VICE. “Amazon was in the headlines again, and we started talking about how Jeff Bezos should buy the Mona Lisa, just because he has the money to do it, because that would make a huge statement.”
As to why he should eat it Powell doesn’t really know. He says he and his fiancee came up with the idea and thought it was funny. They then thought it would be even funnier if their silly little joke went viral, so Powell created a petition for it and posted it on Reddit. Well, mission accomplished: The petition is making headlines.
Will It Actually Happen?
Likely not. Jeff Bezos may be unimaginably wealthy, however, the French government who owns the painting currently makes a massive amount of money on the tourists that flock to the French capital every year to see it. That being said, the painting is well within the billionaire’s budget. According to Chron the Mona Lisa’s current estimated worth is about $850 million while Bezos’ net worth is about $190 billion. That being said, it still likely isn’t going to happen. So if you haven’t yet made the trip to the Louvre to see it, fear not: It will still be sitting in its protective glass casing post-pandemic and not in the bottom of Jeff Bezos’ stomach.
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Sources
- “We want Jeff Bezos to buy and eat the Mona Lisa.” Change. Kane Powell
- “Yes, Jeff Bezos Could Buy and Eat the Mona Lisa if He Wanted To.” Vice. Jelisa Castrodale. June 16, 2021.
- “The Internet wants Jeff Bezos to buy and eat the Mona Lisa.” Chron. Abigail Rosenthal June 11, 2021.