Quiz of the Day
Museums & Art
Sunday, 17 May 2026
International Museum Day — famous museums, art heists, priceless artefacts
1. What is the most visited museum in the world?
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- The British Museum
- The Vatican Museums
- The Louvre
The Louvre in Paris attracts about 9 million visitors per year. Originally a royal palace, it became a public museum in 1793 during the French Revolution. It would take 100 days to see every piece if you spent 30 seconds on each.
2. Who painted the Mona Lisa?
- Raphael
- Leonardo da Vinci
- Botticelli
- Michelangelo
The Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre in 1911 by an Italian handyman who hid in a cupboard overnight. It was missing for two years and the theft actually made it the world's most famous painting.
3. What is the Rosetta Stone and where is it displayed?
- A Roman artefact at the Vatican
- A Greek sculpture at the Louvre
- An ancient decree at the British Museum
- A gemstone at the Smithsonian
The Rosetta Stone (196 BC) contains the same text in three scripts: hieroglyphics, Demotic, and Greek. It allowed scholars to finally decode Egyptian hieroglyphics in 1822. Egypt has repeatedly requested its return.
4. Which art movement included works by Monet, Renoir, and Degas?
- Surrealism
- Impressionism
- Baroque
- Cubism
Impressionism got its name from a hostile critic who mocked Monet's painting 'Impression, Sunrise' in 1874. The artists embraced the insult. Impressionist paintings that once couldn't sell now fetch over $100 million at auction.
5. What is the largest art museum in the world by gallery space?
- The Met
- The Hermitage
- The National Gallery
- The Louvre
The Hermitage in St. Petersburg has over 3 million items across 1,057 rooms. Walking its galleries covers about 24 km. Catherine the Great founded it in 1764 — it also houses about 50 resident cats that protect the collection from mice.
6. What did Banksy's painting do at a Sotheby's auction in 2018?
- It self-shredded through its frame
- It tripled in value
- It was revealed as a forgery
- It caught fire
Banksy had secretly installed a shredder inside the frame of 'Girl with Balloon'. Moments after selling for £1 million, it partially shredded itself. The partially shredded work, renamed 'Love is in the Bin', later sold for £18.5 million.
7. What is the most expensive painting ever sold at auction?
- No. 5, 1948 by Pollock
- Salvator Mundi by da Vinci
- Interchange by de Kooning
- Mona Lisa
Leonardo da Vinci's 'Salvator Mundi' sold for $450.3 million in 2017. The painting had been sold in 1958 for just £45 and was considered a copy. Its attribution to da Vinci is still debated by some scholars.
8. What is the oldest museum in the world?
- The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford
- The British Museum
- The Louvre
- The Capitoline Museums in Rome
The Capitoline Museums were founded in 1471 when Pope Sixtus IV donated a collection of bronzes to the people of Rome. The Ashmolean (1683) claims to be the first purpose-built public museum.
9. What is the most famous art heist in history?
- Mona Lisa theft (1911)
- Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (1990)
- Crown Jewels attempt (1671)
- Scream theft (2004)
In 1990, two men disguised as police officers stole 13 works worth $500 million from Boston's Gardner Museum, including a Vermeer and three Rembrandts. The case remains unsolved — empty frames still hang where the paintings were.
10. Who painted 'The Starry Night'?
- Pablo Picasso
- Salvador Dalí
- Vincent van Gogh
- Claude Monet
Van Gogh painted 'The Starry Night' in 1889 while in a mental asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. He sold only one painting during his lifetime. Today, his works sell for tens of millions — 'Portrait of Dr. Gachet' sold for $82.5 million.
11. What ancient Greek sculpture has been missing its arms since it was found in 1820?
- Winged Victory of Samothrace
- Laocoön and His Sons
- Venus de Milo
- Discobolus
Venus de Milo was found in pieces by a farmer on the Greek island of Milos. The arms were reportedly seen nearby but lost during a scuffle between French and Turkish sailors fighting over the statue. Theories about what she held range from an apple to a shield.
12. What is Frida Kahlo's former home in Mexico City now used as?
- A government building
- A museum (The Blue House)
- A restaurant
- A hotel
La Casa Azul (The Blue House) where Kahlo was born, lived, and died is now one of Mexico's most popular museums. Her ashes are kept in a pre-Columbian urn on her bed. Over 25,000 people visit monthly.
13. What is the purpose of International Museum Day on May 18?
- To raise museum admission prices
- To open new museums
- To raise awareness of the role museums play in society
- To auction museum artefacts
International Museum Day has been celebrated since 1977, with over 37,000 museums in 158 countries participating. Many offer free admission on this day. The 2026 theme focuses on museums and sustainability.
14. Which artist is famous for painting Campbell's Soup Cans?
- Keith Haring
- Jean-Michel Basquiat
- Andy Warhol
- Roy Lichtenstein
Warhol's 32 Campbell's Soup Cans (1962) challenged what could be considered 'art' and launched the Pop Art movement. He chose Campbell's because he ate their soup for lunch every day for 20 years.
15. What technology are museums increasingly using to allow remote visitors to explore exhibits?
- Holograms
- Virtual reality tours
- All of the above
- Augmented reality
During COVID-19 lockdowns, virtual museum visits soared by 2,000%. Google Arts & Culture now offers virtual tours of over 2,500 museums. The British Museum's entire collection of 4.5 million objects is being digitised for online access.