Sum of the Arts
Number of official colors used by the US government = 650
Inspired by the Harper’s Index, Sum of the Arts is a periodic tabulation of numbers floating around the art world and beyond.
- Number of official colors used by the US government = 650
- Number of figures cut from Rembrandt’s 12 foot by 14 foot “The Night Watch” to fit in Amsterdam town hall 73 years after its completion = 2
- Weight in pounds of solid gold opium and cannabis paraphernalia discovered in a 2,400-year-old Scythian grave mound = 7
- Number of recycling trucks to be covered with art this summer as part of a “mobile canvas” project in Washington, DC = 10
- Tons of stacked steel cubes by Richard Serra that will surround his former assistant, composer Philip Glass, in a July performance = 40
- Pairs of military drumsticks acquired by the Yale Collection of Musical Instruments = 60 (including those of the “Poet Drummer of Connecticut”)
- Percentage of lots that were guaranteed, meaning they were practically already sold, at the May 13 Christie’s auction = 61
- Millions in US dollars that have been cut from New York City’s three public library systems in the past 8 years = 65
- Number of artworks the Metropolitan Museum of Art declined to accept from Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney in 1928, which became the foundation of the Whitney Museum of American Art = 600
- Number of households in the world that are worth over $30 million = 211,275
