As recommened by you ... Da Vinci's Last Supper, in Santa Maria delle Grazie cathedral, in Milan. Photograph/EPA Thanks for all the contributions so far to the search for 50 works of art that are worth travelling a world (or a mile) to see. The debate has not yet closed, and there's still time to make suggestions or revise the ones you've made. Personally I wish I'd included the following:
1. Gilles by Antoine Watteau in the Louvre, Paris 2. Saint George by Donatello in the Bargello, Florence 3. The Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry, at Chantilly 4. The Alexander Mosaic, Naples Archaeological Museum 5. The Nymphéas by Monet in the Orangerie, Paris 6. The Great Mosque, Cordoba 7. Primavera by Botticelli in the Uffizi, Florence 8. Broadway Boogie-Woogie by Piet Mondrian in MoMA, New York 9. The Baptism of Christ by Piero della Francesca, National Gallery, London 10. The Isle of Cythera by Antoine Watteau in the Louvre, Paris (I do love Watteau)
To take up one point that some have made: no, in a global perspective I don't believe British art has ever made the grade, at least not since neolithic times when people living on these islands created the wonder that is Stonehenge (rightly nominated).
Frankly I think the British knew themselves better in the days when - as George Orwell did in his wartime patriotic essay The Lion and the Unicorn - they acknowledged that literature, and not visual art, was Britain's sphere of excellence. For example, I think Gainsborough and Hogarth both made brilliant contributions to the Rococo - yet neither can be compared with Watteau. The exceptions are Turner and Constable, but I don't know - would you want a Turner on a desert island?
As for the Angel of the North, which several people suggest ... Don't make me laugh. Can't you see that in future it will seem as minor and odd as that Victorian monstrosity The Scapegoat? (Although myseriously enough that too has found a supporter.) But even if you like Gormley does, he belong in an all-time, worldwide top 50? Eurocentric I may be. Anglocentric I'm not.
