Arts Estimation Questions for Culture Fans

Answer: One

Vincent van Gogh sold only one painting during his lifetime. It was The Red Vineyard, for 400 Belgian francs. In total he painted around 900 pictures in just ten years. Today his works often sell for over 80 million euros at auction.

Answer: Nine

The Sistine Chapel ceiling shows nine large panels from the Bible. Michelangelo painted scenes from the Book of Genesis there. The most famous panel is the Creation of Adam. In it, God and Adam stretch out their fingers toward each other.

Answer: About 70 minutes

Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 lasts about 70 minutes. It was the longest symphony of its time. At its premiere in Vienna in 1824, Beethoven was already almost deaf. In the fourth movement, a choir sings the famous Ode to Joy.

Answer: Approximately 250

Claude Monet painted around 250 pictures of his famous water lilies. He worked on this series for almost 30 years in his garden in Giverny. The biggest canvases are over six meters wide. You can see them today in Paris, New York and many other museums.

Answer: 5.17 meters

Michelangelo's David stands 5.17 meters tall. The marble statue has been in Florence since 1504 and weighs about six tons. Michelangelo carved it from a single block of marble that other artists had failed to use. Today you can see it at the Galleria dell'Accademia.

Answer: 12

A classic artist's color wheel has 12 colors. It is made of three primary colors, three secondary colors, and six in-between tones. Isaac Newton created the first color wheel in 1666. Artists still use it today to find colors that work well together.

Answer: Four

A classical violin has four strings tuned in fifths (G, D, A and E). This setup has been standard for over 300 years. The most expensive violins were built by Antonio Stradivari in Italy. His best instruments sell for more than 15 million euros today.

Answer: 22

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed 22 operas. He started writing them as a child at just eleven years old. His most famous operas are The Magic Flute, Don Giovanni and The Marriage of Figaro. Mozart died young at just 35 years old in 1791.

Answer: Four

Four versions of Edvard Munch's The Scream exist. Munch created them between 1893 and 1910. There are two paintings, one pastel version and one lithograph print. One version was sold for 120 million dollars in 2012.

Answer: Four

Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling in four years (1508 to 1512). He mostly worked alone and standing on a tall scaffold. The surface covers more than 500 square meters. The most famous scene is the Creation of Adam.

Answer: Three

Tchaikovsky composed three ballets. They are Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker. All three are among the most popular ballets in the world today. The Nutcracker is performed especially often around Christmas time.

Answer: Over 100

Picasso created over 100 paintings during his Blue Period. This phase lasted from 1901 to 1904. During this time he used almost only shades of blue and green. The paintings often show poor, sad or lonely people.

Answer: 17

The title Pride and Prejudice has 17 letters, not counting spaces. Jane Austen's novel was published in 1813. It is one of the most loved novels of all time. More than 20 million copies have been sold so far.

Answer: Five

A traditional Japanese cherry blossom design has five petals. In Japan the cherry blossom is called Sakura. It stands for beauty and the shortness of life. Every spring, millions of people celebrate the Hanami festival under the trees.

Answer: Once

The Mona Lisa has been stolen only once, in 1911. An Italian worker named Vincenzo Peruggia hid it under his coat. He wanted to bring the painting back to Italy. Two years later it was found in Florence and returned to Paris.

Answer: 46

46 columns surround the Parthenon in Athens. The temple was built between 447 and 432 BC. It was dedicated to the goddess Athena. The columns lean slightly inward so they look perfectly straight from a distance.

Answer: 14

A classical sonnet has 14 lines. There are two main forms: the Italian and the English sonnet. William Shakespeare made the English form famous. Each line usually has ten syllables and a fixed rhythm.

Answer: Fewer than 20

Experts attribute fewer than 20 paintings to Leonardo da Vinci. The exact number is around 15 to 17 works. He worked very slowly and never finished many pictures. The Mona Lisa and the Last Supper are his most famous works.

Answer: Nine

Beethoven composed nine completed symphonies. His most famous is the Ninth, which includes the Ode to Joy. When he performed it in 1824, he was already almost completely deaf. The Ode to Joy melody is now the anthem of the European Union.

Answer: 80

Rembrandt painted around 80 self-portraits. These include oil paintings, drawings and etchings. No other artist of his time depicted himself this often. You can trace his whole life through these pictures, from young man to old painter.

Answer: Around 230

A concert grand piano has about 230 strings. Most keys are connected to three strings at once. Only the lowest notes use just one or two strings. Together, all the strings pull on the frame with a force of around 20 tons.

Answer: Four

In the Dance of the Little Swans from Swan Lake, four ballerinas dance together. They hold hands and move in perfect sync. The dance is part of the ballet by Pyotr Tchaikovsky. The work was first performed in Moscow in 1877.

Answer: One

Vincent van Gogh painted only one picture called Starry Night. He made it in 1889 while staying in a hospital in southern France. The painting shows a swirling night sky above a small village. Today it hangs in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Answer: Four

Puccini's opera La Bohème has four acts. It premiered in Turin in 1896. The opera tells the story of poor artists in Paris. It remains one of the most performed operas in the world and also inspired the musical Rent.

Answer: 32

A chess set has 32 pieces. Each side gets 16: one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights and eight pawns. The game is over 1,500 years old and comes from India. Today millions of people play it around the world.

Answer: Four

The Louvre Museum in Paris has four floors. It is the most visited museum in the world with around 9 million guests per year. Its halls display over 35,000 works of art. The most famous room is the one holding the Mona Lisa.

Answer: Over 200,000

The Museum of Modern Art in New York has over 200,000 works in its collection. These include paintings, photos, films and design objects. Famous pieces are Van Gogh's Starry Night and Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. Around 3 million visitors come every year.

Answer: 119

The opening sentence of A Tale of Two Cities has 119 words. Dickens wrote it in 1859. It starts with the famous line It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. The book is set during the French Revolution.

Answer: Around 120

Sophocles wrote around 120 plays. Only seven of them survive in full, including Oedipus Rex and Antigone. He lived in Athens in the 5th century BC. He won first prize at the Athens festivals more than 20 times.

Answer: Four

Mount Rushmore shows four presidents carved into the rock. They are George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. Each face is about 18 meters tall. The carving took from 1927 to 1941.

Answer: 80

The Colosseum in Rome has 80 arches on the lower levels. This huge building opened in the year 80 AD. Up to 50,000 people watched gladiator fights there. Thanks to the many arches, all spectators could leave the building in just 15 minutes.

Answer: About 24

A classic Russian ballet corps has about 24 dancers. They move perfectly in sync in the background. The French term for this group is corps de ballet. The most famous example is the swans in Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.

Answer: Around 150

Frida Kahlo created around 150 paintings in her lifetime. About 55 of them are self-portraits. At 18 she had a serious bus accident and painted many pictures from bed. Her husband was the Mexican painter Diego Rivera.

Answer: 142

The word love appears 142 times in Shakespeare's sonnets. He wrote 154 sonnets in total. Almost all of these poems deal with love, beauty or the passing of time. The full collection was first published in 1609 in London.

Answer: Four

A classical string quartet consists of four instruments. They are two violins, one viola and one cello. Joseph Haydn made this form famous in the 18th century. He himself wrote over 60 string quartets.

Answer: 37

The Simpsons have aired since 1989. Season 37 started on September 28, 2025. That makes it the longest-running animated series and the longest-running primetime scripted series in US TV history. The Fox network has already renewed the show through Season 40. Over 800 episodes have aired so far.

Answer: Five

The German word Kunst has five letters. It comes from Old High German and originally meant ability or knowledge. The word künstlich (artificial) comes from the same root. In English the word is art, which has only three letters.

Answer: 66 novels and 14 short story collections

Agatha Christie wrote 66 crime novels and 14 short story collections. She is considered the best-selling novelist of all time. Her books sold over two billion copies. Only the Bible and Shakespeare have sold more.

Answer: Three

The original Star Wars trilogy consists of three films. These are Episode IV (1977), Episode V (1980) and Episode VI (1983). George Lucas was the director. Together the three films earned well over one billion dollars and changed Hollywood forever.

Answer: Over 8,000

The Terracotta Army in Xi'an contains over 8,000 clay soldiers. They were made over 2,200 years ago for Emperor Qin Shi Huang. Every figure has a unique face. The army was discovered in 1974 by Chinese farmers digging a well.

Answer: Five

Shakespeare's play Macbeth has five acts. Most of his plays follow this classic structure. Macbeth is about murder, power, and guilt in Scotland. Many actors call it the Scottish play out of superstition.

Answer: About 1,200

Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy has about 1,200 pages in total. The first book came out in 1954. Tolkien worked on it for over 12 years. The books have sold more than 150 million copies worldwide.

Answer: Six

The Guggenheim Museum in New York has six floors. Architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed it in 1959 with a famous spiral ramp. Most visitors start at the top and walk slowly down. The building itself is considered a work of art.

Answer: 34

Today, only 34 paintings are firmly attributed to Johannes Vermeer. Experts still debate three others. For comparison: in 1866, art historian Thoré-Bürger attributed 74 works to him. Vermeer worked very slowly. In his 22 years as a painter, he probably produced only 40 to 50 pictures total.

Answer: Nine

The Statue of Liberty was built over nine years (1875 to 1884). French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi led the project. The inner frame was designed by Gustave Eiffel, who also built the Eiffel Tower. As a gift from France, the statue arrived in New York in 1885.

Answer: 88

A modern standard piano has 88 keys. Of these, 52 are white and 36 are black. Older pianos had far fewer keys. The company Steinway set this number in the late 19th century, and it has stayed that way ever since.

Answer: 36

The Lincoln Memorial in Washington has 36 columns around it. The number stands for the 36 states that were part of Lincoln's USA when he died in 1865. Inside the hall, Lincoln sits as a huge marble statue. The memorial was completed in 1922.

Answer: One

Picasso's Guernica is a single large painting, not a series. It is almost 8 meters wide and 3.5 meters tall. Picasso painted it in 1937 in response to the bombing of the Spanish town of Guernica. Today it hangs in the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid.

Answer: 22

The Flatiron Building in New York has 22 floors. It was completed in 1902 and was one of the tallest buildings in the city at the time. The name comes from its shape, which looks like an old clothes iron. At its tip, the building is only about two meters wide.

Answer: 154

Shakespeare wrote a total of 154 sonnets. They were printed in a single book in 1609. Most of them deal with love, beauty and time. The first 126 sonnets are addressed to a young man, the rest to a mysterious Dark Lady.

Answer: Four

Beethoven's Ode to Joy has four stanzas. The text was written by Friedrich Schiller in 1785. Beethoven added it to his Ninth Symphony in 1824. The melody is today the official anthem of the European Union.

Answer: Over 50

There are over 50 film versions of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. The book was published in 1843 and was an immediate success. Adaptations include live-action films, cartoons and even the Muppets. The stingy Ebenezer Scrooge has been played by dozens of stars.

Answer: Around 300

Auguste Rodin created around 300 sculptures in his lifetime. His most famous work is The Thinker. He is considered the founder of modern sculpture. Rodin often worked in clay and later had the pieces cast in bronze or marble.

Answer: Three

Verdi's opera La Traviata has three acts. It premiered in Venice in 1853. The opera tells the love story of Violetta and Alfredo. The premiere was a flop, but today it is one of the most performed operas in the world.

Answer: Ten

Rodin's The Thinker has ten fingers, like a regular person. The bronze sculpture is 1.86 meters tall. Rodin created it between 1880 and 1882 as part of a larger work. It shows the Italian poet Dante Alighieri deep in thought.

Answer: Two

Mozart's opera The Magic Flute has two acts. It premiered in Vienna in 1791, shortly before Mozart's death. The opera is in German and mixes fairytale with serious music. The most famous aria is the one sung by the Queen of the Night.

Answer: 22 years

The Taj Mahal in India was built over 22 years (1632 to 1653). Around 20,000 workers and 1,000 elephants helped with the project. Emperor Shah Jahan built the tomb for his late wife Mumtaz Mahal. The white marble came from many countries across Asia.

Answer: Six

Jane Austen wrote six completed novels, including Pride and Prejudice. She died in 1817 at the age of 41. During her lifetime her name never appeared on her books. She only became world famous after her death.

Answer: About 4 minutes

The Hallelujah Chorus lasts about four minutes. Handel wrote his entire Messiah oratorio in just 24 days in 1741. Many people stand up during the Hallelujah. This tradition goes back to King George II, who reportedly rose from his seat.

Answer: Over 20,000

The Vatican Museums hold over 20,000 paintings and around 70,000 artworks in total. Only about 20,000 of them are on public display. Around 7 million visitors come every year. The most famous room is Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel.

Answer: Three

The Eiffel Tower has three floors that are open to visitors. The top floor sits at 276 meters high. You can go up by elevator or climb 1,665 steps. The tower was built for the 1889 World's Fair in Paris.

Answer: 25

Claude Monet's Haystacks series includes 25 paintings. He painted the same haystacks at different times of day and year. This showed how light completely changes the colors. One of the paintings sold for 110 million dollars in 2019.

Answer: Around 70–100

A large symphony orchestra usually has 70 to 100 musicians. Together they play strings, winds, brass, and percussion. The conductor stands at the front and sets the tempo. The biggest works by Gustav Mahler need even more than 100 players.

Answer: 14 years

The Sydney Opera House took 14 years to build (1959 to 1973). Originally it was planned to take only four years. The roof is covered with over one million white ceramic tiles. More than 1,500 performances take place there every year.

Answer: About Four

Leonardo da Vinci worked about four years on the Mona Lisa (roughly 1503 to 1506). Some researchers believe he painted on it for even longer. The picture is only 77 by 53 centimeters small. Today it hangs behind bulletproof glass at the Louvre in Paris.

Answer: 887

Easter Island has 887 Moai statues. The native Rapa Nui people created them around 500 to 1,000 years ago. The largest figure is nearly 10 meters tall and weighs over 80 tons. Many Moai also have bodies, but they are often buried and hidden.

Answer: Around 1,000

Vincent van Gogh reportedly used around 1,000 brushes. He painted about 900 pictures in just ten years. He went through huge amounts of paint and materials. Van Gogh often applied paint very thickly, which wore out his brushes fast.

Answer: New York

Many people think the painting hangs in Amsterdam or Paris. In fact it hangs in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Van Gogh painted it in 1889 while in a mental asylum in France. He saw the night sky through the barred window of his room. MoMA bought the painting for its collection all the way back in 1941.

Answer: 77 cm

The Mona Lisa measures only 77 by 53 centimeters. Many visitors are surprised how small the painting looks at the Louvre. It is about the size of a small child's poster. Still, a thick bulletproof glass panel protects the work. Roughly 80 percent of Louvre visitors come just to see this single picture.

Answer: Copenhagen

The small bronze statue sits at the harbor of Copenhagen in Denmark. It is only 1.25 meters tall and weighs 175 kilos. Many tourists are disappointed by its small size. The statue has been damaged and even beheaded several times since 1913. It is based on the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen.

Answer: Pink

After the sad Blue Period came Picasso's Rose Period. It lasted from 1904 to 1906. Picasso now painted circus performers and harlequins in warm red and pink tones. The reason was his new love for Fernande Olivier. His mood and his paintings brightened up clearly.

Answer: Violin

Einstein played the violin from the age of six. He lovingly called his instrument Lina. Mozart was his favorite composer. He once said that life without music would be unthinkable for him. Sometimes he even played in the middle of the night when he was stuck on a formula.

Answer: 8 years

Mozart wrote his first symphony at just eight years old in London. He was on a big concert tour of Europe with his father at the time. Already at age five he composed his first little pieces. His father Leopold wrote down the notes because Wolfgang could barely write yet. In total he created more than 600 works in his life.

Answer: Up to 8

A harpist only uses four fingers per hand, including the thumb. The little fingers are too short and too weak, so they stay unused. That means at most eight notes can sound at the same time. A concert harp has up to 47 strings. It also has seven pedals that the player uses to change the pitch.

Answer: Germany

Nosferatu is a German silent film by director Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau. It is considered one of the first horror movies ever. The studio did not have the rights to the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. So they changed all the names and were sued anyway. Almost all copies were supposed to be destroyed, but a few survived.

Answer: His entire left ear

For a long time people thought Van Gogh only cut off part of his earlobe. A note from his doctor shows it was the entire left ear. This happened in 1888 after a fight with Paul Gauguin. Van Gogh took the ear to a brothel and gave it to a woman. A few weeks later he painted his famous self portrait with bandage.

Answer: Over 140 years

Construction started in 1882 and is still not finished. Architect Antoni Gaudi worked on the church for more than 40 years. He died in 1926 after being hit by a tram. Completion is planned for 2026, which marks the 100th anniversary of Gaudi's death. The building is funded only by donations and ticket sales.

Answer: USA

The original torch was replaced in 1984 and now stands in the Statue of Liberty Museum on Liberty Island. Water and weather had damaged it badly. The new torch is covered in real gold leaf. Visitors can view the old torch up close. By the way, the statue itself was built in Paris by Gustave Eiffel.

Answer: New York

Mickey Mouse premiered in November 1928 at the Colony Theater in New York. The film was called Steamboat Willie and was the first cartoon with sound. Walt Disney himself voiced Mickey. The mouse was originally called Mortimer, but Walt's wife Lillian found the name boring. Today Mickey Mouse is the most famous cartoon character in the world.

Answer: 20 children

Bach had a total of 20 children in two marriages. With his first wife Maria Barbara he had seven children. With his second wife Anna Magdalena came 13 more. Only ten of the children survived childhood. Four of his sons later became famous composers themselves.

Answer: 530 carats

The Cullinan I weighs 530 carats and sits in the king's scepter. The rough stone was found in South Africa in 1905. At that time it weighed 3106 carats and was the largest diamond ever found. A cutter in Amsterdam needed eight months to work on it. He split the stone into nine large and many small diamonds.

Answer: About 50,000

Picasso created around 50,000 works, including paintings, drawings, sculptures, and ceramics. He worked almost every day for nearly 80 years. That is on average almost two works per day. No modern artist was more productive. His works hang in almost every major museum in the world today.

Answer: Over 33,000

The Boardwalk Hall organ in Atlantic City has 33,114 pipes, making it the largest organ in the world. It was built in the 1930s. The smallest pipes are only a few centimeters long, the largest are over 9 meters tall. The second largest organ stands in a department store in Philadelphia.

Answer: Marble

Michelangelo carved the David from a single block of marble. The block came from Carrara in Tuscany. Two other sculptors had already started and given up on it before. Michelangelo worked on the statue for three years, from 1501 to 1504. The David weighs over six tons.

Answer: Military engineer

In 1482 Leonardo wrote a long letter to the Duke of Milan. The first nine points were about weapons and war machines. Only at the very end did he mention that he could also paint. He got the job and stayed in Milan for 17 years. Later he painted The Last Supper there.

Answer: 1826

Frenchman Nicephore Niepce took the world's first photograph in 1826. He needed eight hours of exposure time on a pewter plate. The photo shows the view from his study in Burgundy. The image still exists today and hangs in a museum in Texas. The first camera phones came 174 years later.

Answer: 225 tons

The Statue of Liberty weighs about 225 tons without the pedestal. Her outer skin is only made of thin copper. The copper is only as thick as two one euro coins stacked. The green color comes from oxidation over decades. Originally the statue shone copper brown like a penny.

Answer: Japan

The world's first novel is called The Tale of Genji. It was written around the year 1000 by the court lady Murasaki Shikibu. The book is more than 1000 pages long. It was written at the Japanese imperial court in Kyoto. At that time almost no one in Europe could read, and the printing press had not been invented yet.

Answer: Traditional Tehuana dresses

Frida Kahlo loved to wear the colorful traditional dresses of the Tehuana women from Mexico. The long skirts hid her damaged leg after a bus accident. She had polio as a young woman and later a serious accident. In almost all her self portraits she wears these dresses. Her outfits are now on display at the Casa Azul Museum in Mexico City.

Answer: About 50,000

The Colosseum held about 50,000 spectators when it opened in the year 80. That is more than some football stadiums today. The Romans could fill or empty the arena in just minutes. There were 80 entrances around the building. Even a huge sun sail protected the spectators.

Answer: Mary Blair

Mary Blair was Disney's most important concept artist in the 1940s and 50s. She designed the color worlds of Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and Cinderella. Walt Disney himself admired her bold color choices. Later she also designed the famous It's a Small World attraction. But her name rarely appeared in the opening credits.

Answer: Bonn

Many people think Beethoven came from Vienna. But he was born in Bonn in 1770. Only at age 21 did he move to Vienna and he stayed there until his death. His birthplace in Bonn is now a museum. As a child he already played for the Elector at court.

Answer: Over 300

Madame Tussauds London shows more than 300 wax figures. Each figure takes about four months of work. For a single figure more than 150 real hairs are inserted one by one every day. The cost per figure is around 150,000 euros. Founder Marie Tussaud started her exhibitions in England in 1802.

Answer: John Heartfield

The German artist John Heartfield invented political photomontage. He glued photos together to mock the Nazis. One famous image shows Hitler with an X-ray full of gold coins in his belly. The Nazis wanted to arrest him, so he fled to Prague and London. His real name was Helmut Herzfeld.

Answer: About 9,000

Tolkien needed 12 years and about 9,000 handwritten pages for his work. He often wrote at night after his job as a professor in Oxford. Many scenes he rewrote ten or twenty times. His son Christopher later drew the maps for the book. The manuscript is now kept at Marquette University in the USA.

Answer: said

The word said appears in all seven Harry Potter books more than 20,000 times. Rowling rarely uses synonyms like replied or whispered. Many writing coaches recommend the opposite. Rowling says the word said is invisible to readers and does not interrupt reading flow. This trick helps her books read very fast.

Answer: Jamaica

Reggae emerged on the island of Jamaica in the late 1960s. Bob Marley made the music famous worldwide. The name reggae first appeared on a record in 1968. Typical is the accent on the second and fourth beat. Unesco declared reggae a cultural heritage of humanity in 2018.

Answer: 1.8 meters

The Kiss measures 180 by 180 centimeters and is a really big square. The painting hangs in the Upper Belvedere in Vienna. Klimt glued real gold leaf onto the canvas. He painted the work between 1907 and 1908. Today it is one of Austria's most famous paintings and decorates countless postcards.

Answer: Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Antoine de Saint-Exupery drew all the pictures in The Little Prince himself. He was a pilot and crashed in the Sahara in 1935. That is where he got the idea for the book. The Little Prince is the most translated book in the world after the Bible. It exists in over 500 languages and dialects.

Answer: Three to four

Stone Age painters mostly used only three or four colors: red, yellow, black and white. The colors came from earth, charcoal, and minerals. The Lascaux caves in France are about 17,000 years old. Some paintings were only seen again by people in 1940. The cave is now closed to visitors because breath damages the colors.

Answer: Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright designed the Guggenheim as a big white spiral. He worked on the plans for 16 years. Sadly Wright died six months before the opening in 1959. Visitors enter at the top and walk slowly down the spiral. The building itself is often more important than the art inside.

Answer: New Orleans

Jazz was born around 1900 in New Orleans in the US state of Louisiana. It grew out of African rhythms, blues, and European marching music. Louis Armstrong made the music famous worldwide. The word jazz first appeared in a newspaper in 1915. Street musicians still play jazz every day in New Orleans.

Answer: 96 meters

The tower in London is 96 meters tall, about as high as a 30-story building. Big Ben is actually only the name of the largest bell inside. The tower itself was called Clock Tower before and is now called Elizabeth Tower. It was renovated from 2017 to 2022 and now lights up at night again. The four clock faces are each seven meters wide.

Answer: 639 years

The organ piece As Slow As Possible by John Cage is being played in Halberstadt for 639 years. It started in 2001 and will only end in 2640. For years visitors hear the same sustained chord. The last note change happened in 2022 and drew many fans to the small town. The next change will not happen until 2026.

Answer: About 70 days

The classic Casablanca was shot in about 70 days in 1942. During filming the actors did not know how the movie would end. Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman acted in front of a painted backdrop at a Los Angeles studio. No one had been to Morocco. The film won three Oscars and is still considered one of the best of all time.

Answer: Argentina

Tango was born in the port districts of Buenos Aires at the end of the 19th century. Immigrants from Europe and Africa and the local population mixed their music and dances. At first tango was seen as scandalous and banned in high society. Only after its success in Paris around 1910 did it become acceptable in Argentina. Today tango is officially a Unesco cultural heritage.

Answer: Over 5,000

In 2010 photographer Spencer Tunick gathered over 5,000 naked people in front of the Sydney Opera House. Tunick takes such photos of naked groups around the world. His record is almost 20,000 people in Mexico in 2007. Participants usually receive a signed copy as payment. The art works aim to show how vulnerable humans are.

Answer: John Williams

John Williams wrote the music for all major Star Wars films. He also composed the themes for Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, E.T., and Jurassic Park. Williams has 54 Oscar nominations and is one of the most nominated people of all time. Only Walt Disney was nominated more often. Even at over 90 years old he is still writing music.

Answer: 632 years

Construction of Cologne Cathedral began in 1248 and was only finished in 1880. That is 632 years. For more than 300 years the cathedral stood half built with an old crane. The crane became a symbol of the city. Only with money from the Prussian kings did building continue. The cathedral is today the most visited monument in Germany.

Answer: Various colors

Before the Coca-Cola ads Santa often wore green, brown, or blue coats. The red Coca-Cola coat was made popular in 1931 by illustrator Haddon Sundblom. Red existed before that in some pictures. The Coca-Cola ad shaped today's worldwide image. In some countries Saint Nicholas still wears green.

Answer: Four

Four bronze horses decorate the facade of St. Mark's Basilica in Venice. The Venetians stole them from Constantinople in 1204. Napoleon stole them in 1797 and took them to Paris. Only in 1815 did the horses return to Venice. The originals now stand protected inside, and copies hang outside.

Answer: Sydney

The famous opera house sits right at the harbor of Sydney in Australia. Danish architect Jorn Utzon designed the roof to look like sails or orange peels. Over one million white ceramic tiles cover the roof. Construction took 14 years and cost ten times more than planned. Today over 1,800 events take place there every year.

Answer: Hans Christian Andersen

Fairy tale author Hans Christian Andersen grew up in poor conditions. His father was a shoemaker in Odense in Denmark. The family was so poor that Hans often went hungry. Still he managed to become a world famous writer. His fairy tales like The Little Mermaid or The Snow Queen exist in almost every language.

Answer: Italian authors

The story of Romeo and Juliet is much older than Shakespeare. Italian writers like Masuccio Salernitano told it already in the 15th century. Shakespeare took the plot from an English poem by Arthur Brooke. His version became famous around 1595. The balcony Juliet speaks from is actually not in the text.

Answer: 6 years

Shirley Temple received a mini Oscar at age six for her achievements in 1934. It was an honorary award made just for children. The youngest regular Oscar went to Tatum O'Neal at age ten. She got it in 1974 for her role in Paper Moon. Both records still stand today.

Answer: 11

Ben Hur won a total of eleven Oscars in 1960. That was a record for decades. Only in 1998 did Titanic tie it, and in 2004 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King did too. The famous chariot race scene lasted nine minutes and cost 1 million dollars. A hundred horses and 15,000 extras took part.

Answer: Bristol

Banksy comes from the English port city of Bristol. He started his stencil graffiti there in the 1990s. Until today his real identity is officially a secret. His shredded picture Girl with Balloon sold for over 18 million euros in 2021. A Banksy work on a house wall can multiply the building's value by ten.

Answer: around 1,200 spruce trees

The finished tree stands 45 meters tall and weighs about 40 tons. Figures from the Dortmund Christmas market for the 2025 season.

Answer: about 1,832 euros

A groom's suit averages 1,070 euros. Source: Bridebook Wedding Report 2026, an industry survey of couples.

Answer: 8,095 meters (just over 8 kilometers)

Fifteen volunteers spent two months stitching donated lace together. Source: Guinness World Records, set in 2017 in Caudry, France.

Answer: almost 7 kilometers (6,962.6 meters)

A bride from Cyprus fulfilled a lifelong dream with it. Source: Guinness World Records, set in 2018 in Larnaca.

Answer: 50,907 diamonds

Every stone was set by hand. Source: Guinness World Records, set in 2023 in Mumbai.

Answer: About 15 hours

The complete Ring of the Nibelung lasts about 15 hours. It consists of four operas, usually performed on four evenings. Richard Wagner worked on it for more than 25 years. It is still performed at the Bayreuth Festival today.

Answer: About 450 million

The painting Salvator Mundi was auctioned in 2017 for about 450 million dollars. It is attributed to Leonardo da Vinci. No other artwork has ever fetched a higher price at auction. In the 1950s the same picture was once sold for less than 100 dollars.

Answer: About 1,700

Shakespeare is said to have brought about 1,700 new words into the English language. Many of them are still used today. He formed new words from old ones, combined them or gave them new meanings. Few writers have shaped a language so deeply.

Answer: Paris

The most visited museum in the world is the Louvre in Paris. Many millions of visitors come every year. Most of them want to see the Mona Lisa. The museum is so large that seeing every work would take weeks.

Answer: About 2 years

A workman stole the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911. The painting was missing for a good two years, until the thief tried to sell it in Italy. The theft is what made the painting world famous. Before that it was known mainly to art experts.

Answer: 403

Bob Ross painted in 403 episodes of his show The Joy of Painting. The programme ran on US television from 1983 to 1994. In each episode he completed a full landscape painting in about half an hour. His calm voice made him famous around the world.

Answer: 104

Joseph Haydn wrote 104 numbered symphonies. That is why he is called the father of the symphony. For comparison, Beethoven wrote only 9. Haydn was one of the most famous composers in Europe in his day and a teacher of Beethoven.

Answer: About 4 degrees

The Leaning Tower of Pisa leans by about 4 degrees today. It began tilting during construction in the Middle Ages because the ground was too soft. At one point the lean was more than 5 degrees. Engineering work has since straightened the tower slightly.

Answer: Italy

Ballet was born in Italy, at the princely courts of the Renaissance. Many people first think of France or Russia. It only came to France later, partly through Catherine de' Medici. The French kings then turned it into the art form we know today.

Answer: 5

Classical ballet has five basic positions of the feet. Every movement begins and ends in one of these positions. They were defined in France more than 300 years ago. Dancers around the world still learn them first.

Answer: 30 metres

The statue Christ the Redeemer is 30 metres tall, or 38 metres with its pedestal. It stands on a mountain high above Rio de Janeiro. Its outstretched arms span 28 metres from hand to hand. The statue was completed in 1931.

Answer: About 5 billion

An estimated 5 billion or more copies of the Bible have been printed. That makes it the most widely distributed book in the world. It has been fully translated into well over 700 languages. The first printed book in Europe was also a Bible, printed by Johannes Gutenberg.

Answer: About 1.3 million

The longest novel in the world is In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust. It has about 1.3 million words in seven volumes. A normal novel has only about 90,000 words. Reading an hour a day, it takes several months to finish.

Answer: The Hague

Jan Vermeer's famous painting hangs in the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague. Many people expect it to be in Amsterdam, where other Vermeer paintings hang. The picture is often called the Mona Lisa of the North. To this day nobody knows who the girl really was.

Answer: Florence

The original David stands in the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence. The famous statue outside the Palazzo Vecchio is only a copy. The original stood there in the open for more than 350 years. It was moved into the museum in 1873 to protect it from the weather.