Sum of the Arts
Number of international art fairs now held each year = 180 (compared to 55 in 2000)
Inspired by the Harper’s Index, Sum of the Arts is a periodic tabulation of numbers floating around the art world and beyond.
- Years Indian artist Nek Chand, who died last Friday, secretly built his Rock Garden of Chandigarh sculptures and waterfalls on state-owned land = 18
- Number of tiny gold-inlaid pistols given by Napoleon to his three-year-old son during their last moments together = 2
- Percentage of adults in the United States who have a tattoo = 20
- Percent increase in American arts and culture donations in 2014 = 9.2
- Number of schools in Michigan with their heat and air conditioning controlled by a 1980s Commodore Amiga = 19
- Percentage of all art thefts that occur in private residences = 95 (and the FBI’s recovery rate is less than 10%)
- Number of international art fairs held each year = 180 (compared to 55 in 2000)
- Gallons of water the ancient Roman Anio Novus aqueduct is estimated to have carried per second = 370 (25 percent less that previously thought)
- Years before artist Taryn Simon’s cube of nuclear waste will go on view at Moscow’s new Garage Museum of Contemporary Art = 1,000 (it’s being stored in a Russian nuclear facility until 3015)
- Number of hands on an 800-year-old Buddha statue that was recently restored in China = 1,000
- Native speakers of Esperanto, created in the 19th century as a universal language to encourage peace and understanding = 1,000
- Number of shipwrecks owned by the state of Michigan = 1,500
