Girl with a Pearl Earring

Johannes Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring draws 400,000 annual visitors to the Mauritshuis, earning its 'Dutch Mona Lisa' nickname through luminous technique and the model's unidentified identity, a mystery that persists 35% longer than the average portrait. Though it trails The Persistence of Memory in surrealist fame, its cultural impact rivals #1's for generating theories about the sitter's gaze.