Following the popularity of the BBC's vote on the greatest painting hanging in Britain, artworks from around the world are to be set against one another in a global Pop Idol-style contest.Voters will be asked to discriminate between Picasso and Pollock, Botticelli and Bosch, in the latest manifestation of the trend to popularise high culture by applying the voting principles of Big Brother.
In the last two years, the BBC alone has constructed programmes around votes to find best books, greatest Briton, and most influential philosopher, among others.
Brave New Words, the communications consultancy that took the idea for the greatest painting to BBC Radio 4's Today programme and the National Gallery, plans to export the format around the world.
The global success of television formats such as Pop Idol, Big Brother and Strictly Come Dancing has shown an appetite for interactive entertainment formats that can be replicated internationally.
Managing director Adam Baines said he was confident the recent domestic enthusiasm for more high-minded fare would also translate globally. The company is in negotiations with big broadcasters to take the idea to America, Australia, Italy, Spain, Holland, Germany and France.
Other countries will then follow, with the winning paintings in each territory then pitted against one another next summer in an effort to find the "greatest painting in the world". Mr Baines said it was the first time such an exercise had been conducted.
Celebrity advocates will help launch the vote by selecting their favourites and a big gallery will help promote it to the public.
Radio 4's poll, which was won by Turner's The Fighting Temeraire, showed that the public has yet to tire of the trend and it was the most popular that the broadcaster has conducted by some distance. More than 120,000 votes were cast in two weeks.
Mr Baines said the international contests, some of which would be televised rather than broadcast on radio, would also give an insight into the mentality of the voters in each country.
"Britain followed a patriotic route," he said, with Turner and Constable's The Hay Wain taking the top two places. "I would be surprised if America followed a similar path."
The rules for the British vote will be replicated around the world with participants permitted to back any painting hanging in a gallery in their homeland regardless of who painted it.
As such, Van Gogh's Sunflowers was eligible for the British vote as it hangs in the National Gallery, and many international works will be open to US voters.
September 2005
