From the Tallest Statue to the Largest Drawing, Here Are 24 Astonishing Tidbits of Art Trivia From the Guinness Book of World Records – artnet News

To set a Guinness World Record is no easy accomplishmentthere are currently some 47,000 record titles, with more than 1,000 incoming applications to set new records each week. (Wait times can be up to four months.) Tucked inside these tomes are some extraordinary art superlatives, from the worlds most expensive painting at auction to the largest artwork ever painted with coffee.

In honor of Guinness World Record Day on November 19, here are some of the most outrageous art records on the books.

Students with work they created in the worlds largest art lesson. Photo courtesy of Expressions Stationery Shop Inc.

Who: Expressions Stationery Shop Inc.

Where:Quezon City, Philippines

When:February 24, 2018

What:No fewer than16,692 people, mostly students, took part in a 45-minute art lesson to learn how to draw one of the colorful masks that celebrate the MassKara Festival, which has been described as the Philippines answer to Brazils Carnival.

Arbnora Fejza Idrizi with the worlds largest origami flower. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Who:Arbnora Fejza Idrizi

Where: Skenderaj, Kosovo

When:September 1, 2018

What:A 10-year veteran of making origami art,Arbnora Fejza Idrizi captured the record for the largest origami flower with this delicate 28-and-a-half-foot paper sculpture.

Ram V. Sutar, Statue of Unity. Located in India, this is the worlds largest statue. Photo courtesy of the Statue of Unity Monument.

Who:Ram V. Sutar

Where: Kevadia colony, Gujarat, India

When: October 31, 2018

What:India built the worlds largest statue, topping out at 597 feet tall, as a monument to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who served as the nations first deputy prime minister.Building it took four years, cost 29.9 billion rupees ($430 million), and required 7,416,080 cubic feet of cement, 25,000 tons of steel, and 1,700 tons of bronze. (Despite rumors, the Indian government did not, in fact,put the artwork on the marketin response to financial troubles earlier this year. But admittedly, the collector base for such a sculpture is quite narrow.)

The worlds largest bead mosaic, from Cmara de Comercio, Servicios y Turismo de Guadalajara. Photo courtesy of Guinness World Records.

Who:Cmara de Comercio, Servicios y Turismo de Guadalajara

Where:Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico

When:August 20, 2018

What:Measuring 877 square feet, this massive bead mosaic took 780 hours to create, with 15 artists using a total of 66 pounds of glue and approaching 1,000 pounds of beads.

Willard Wigan holds the record for the smallest sculpture with this figure of an embryo inside a hollowed-out strand of hair. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Who:Willard Wigan

Where:Warwick, UK

When:September 5, 2017

What:Master micro-sculptor Willard Wigan created a sculpture of an embryo measuring just78 microns long and 53 microns tall, and placed it inside a hollowed-out strand of hair. He made the microscopic work from a carpet fiber.

The largest display of crochet sculptures was amassed by Mother Indias Crochet Queens. Photo courtesy of Guinness World Records.

Who:Mother Indias Crochet Queens

Where:Chennai, India

When:January 21, 2018

What:Subashri Natarajan spearheaded the collection of 58,917 crochet sculptures created by Indian people around the world in this record-breaking effort by Mother Indias Crochet Queens.

Dale Chihulys glass sculpture, Fiori di Como (1998) on the ceiling of the Bellagio in Las Vegas. Photo by torbakhopper, via Flickr Creative Commons.

Who:Dale Chihuly

Where:Las Vegas

When:October 15, 1998

What:An eye-poppingand much-Instagrammedsculpture of 2,000 glass flowers hangs overhead in the lobby of the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, the work of master glass blower Dale Chihuly. The entire installation measures29-and-a-half feet by 65-and-a-half feet.

Salvator Mundi before it is auctioned at Christies. Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images.

Who:Leonardo da Vinci

Where:New York

When:November 15, 2017

What:Leonardo da VincisSalvador Munditook a winding road to the auction block, lostfor decades, dismissed as a copy, and then rediscovered and heavily restored before selling for an astounding $450 million at Christies sale of postwar and contemporary art in November 2017.Controversy still surrounds the work, which hasnt been seen since.

Images of Gurmej Mr. Caution Singhs The Transcendental, the worlds longest painting by an individual. Photo courtesy of Guinness World Records.

Who: Gurmej Mr. Caution Singh

Where: Grand Rapids, Michigan

When: September 14, 2013

What:For his 2013 entry to the art festival ArtPrize,Gurmej Mr. Caution Singh spent 38 days creatingThe Transcendental, a more than 11,300-foot-long painting. The only problem? He had been approved to create a 30-foot mural, not a three-mile display that blocked traffic and violated public safety. Not only did Singh not win any prizes for his efforts, he wasgiven a lifetime ban from the contest. But hey, he did make it into the Guinness Book of World Records!

The National Water Museum of China and Li Hangyu set the record for largest professional oil painting by a single artist. Photo courtesy of Guinness World Records.

Who:The National Water Museum of China and Li Hangyu

Where: Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China

When:July 21, 2020

What:The National Water Museum of China commissioned Li Hangyu to paint this nearly 1,521-square-foot oil painting. It took five months to finish and features the Yellow River, the Yangtze River, Three Gorges Dam, and other waterways and large-scale water conservancy projects.

The Skulptura Projects GmbH built the worlds tallest sand castle at Sandskulpturen Festival in 2019. Photo courtesy of Guinness World Records.

Who: Skulptura Projects GmbH

Where: Binz, Germany

When: June 5, 2019

What:It took two years, but theSandskulpturen Festival finally broke the record for the worlds tallest sandcastle, enlisting ateam of 12 sculptors and eight technicians from Russia, Poland, Hungary, Germany, Holland, and Latvia to build the nearly 58-foot-tall construction. Made of over 12,125 tons of sand, bound together only by water, the project, led by sculpting enthusiast Thomas van den Dungen, took three and a half weeks to complete.

Hung Chi-Sung madethe worlds largest painting in 2019. Photo courtesy of Guinness World Records.

Who:Hung Chi-Sung

Where:Hualien, Taiwan, China

When:June 21, 2019

What:Measuring130,099 square feet, this massive painting of the Buddha is meant to symbolize peace and connection between human beings around the globe. Artist Hung Chi-Sung was inspired to create the larger than life religious painting by the Talibans destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas in 2001.

Pablo Picasso with his son Claude, August 21, 1955. Image courtesy Getty Images.

Who: Pablo Picasso

Where: Spain

When:18811973

What:A seemingly endless fount of creativity, Picasso earned his place in the record books with an estimated 13,500 paintings, 100,000 prints and engravings, 34,000 book illustrations, and 300 sculptures and ceramics. Good luck topping this one.

The Dubai Miracle Garden holds the record for the worlds largest topiary statue with this Mickey Mouse figure. Photo courtesy of Guinness World Records.

Who:Dubai Miracle Garden

Where: Dubai, United Arab Emirates

When:February 26, 2018

What:Move over Jeff Koons. Towering high above the artists famedPuppy, the terrier sculpture covered in flowering plants at the Guggenheim Bilbao, is this flowering Mickey Mouse figure at theDubai Miracle Garden. Over 59 feet tall, the sculpture weighs close to 35 tons, outfitted with nearly 100,000 geraniums, marigolds, petunias, and other flowers.

Workers build the snow sculpture Romantic Feelings at the 20th International Snow Sculpture Art Expo on December 17, 2007 in Harbin of Heilongjiang Province, China. Photo by China Photos/Getty Images.

Who:Harbin International Ice & Snow Sculpture Festival

Where: Harbin, China

When: 2007

What:Topping out at 115 tall and 656 feet long, the worlds largest snow sculpture, titled Romantic Feelings, featured an Olympic-themed landscape complete with a French cathedral, a Russian church, Stonehenge, the Acropolis, and the head of a giant ice maiden, frosty hair rippling in the wintry breeze. The artists600 sculptors from 40 different countriesused 120,000 cubic feet of compressed snow collected from the nearby Songhua River to create the frozen masterpiece.

Some of the nearly 500 people painted at the Woodstock Festival Poland in 2015. Photo courtesy of Guinness World Records.

Who:Woodstock Festival Poland

Where: Kostrzyn nad Odra, Poland

When:July 31, 2015

What:The Polish cell phone company Play sponsored this rainbow-hued effort from the Woodstock Festival Poland to body-paint 497 people in celebration of the events 21st anniversary.

Students in India from the Ceoa School broke the record for most people coloring in simultaneously. Photo courtesy of Guinness World Records.

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From the Tallest Statue to the Largest Drawing, Here Are 24 Astonishing Tidbits of Art Trivia From the Guinness Book of World Records - artnet News