Inside the $7.5 Million "Mr Mona Lisa" Punk - Deconstructing the 24x24 Pixel Art and Reconstructing with a Smile in a "Mr & Mrs Mona Lisa" Left and Right Edition
In "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Punks"
Pseudonymous Vincenzo Peruggia - token owner of punk 
#7804 "Mr. Mona Lisa"
writes:
What is scarcity worth? I like to view the Mona Lisa [oil art painting (53×77cm)] as the scarcest asset. If the French government were facing bankruptcy and needed to sell assets and put it to auction what should it sell for?
What's the right price? 0.01% of world wealth? 0.1%?
My framework for valuing punks is:
- How large is the global demand for scarce assets?
- How likely is it that in the future the most valued assets are digital?
- How likely are the first digital tokens to be viewed as the scarcest?
- Among scarce assets what % of that value should be placed on the most esteemed?
- How likely is the punk #7804 token to be viewed as one of the most esteemed?
It requires minimal faith in innovation to reach a conclusion - this 24x24 pixel art token will be more valued in the future.
And thus from my estimates the ~$7.5 million (ETH 4200) I spent on this 24×24 punk pixel art token is virtually a rounding error. Much like my namesake [Vincenzo Perrugia] I may have acquired what will one day be viewed as the scarcest asset for a cost basis of roughly $0. [What a steal!]
What's your take? Is ~$7.5 million a steal? A rounding error (roughly $0)? What's the true value of the 24x24 pixel art token? Is it the magic smile?
Let's try the impossible and recreate the "Mr Mona Lisa" punk from scratch / zero.
Step 0: Let's start with a male alien punk archetype, that is, a "plain vanilla" zero-attributes design:
require 'cryptopunks'
mr = Image.parse( <<TXT, colors: ['000000', '75bdbd', '9be0e0', 'c8fbfb'] )
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TXT
mr.save( 'mrmonalisa_0.png' )
mr.zoom(4).save( 'mrmonalisax4_0.png' )
Step 1: Let's add the cap forward.
capforward = Image.parse( <<TXT, colors: ['000000','353535','515151'] )
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TXT
capforward.save( 'capforward.png' )
capforward.zoom(4).save('capforwardx4.png')
and let's put on the cap:
mr.compose!( capforward, 6, 4 )
mr.zoom(4).save( 'mrmonalisax4_1.png' )
Step 2: Let's add the small shades.
smallshades = Image.parse( <<TXT, colors: ['000000'] )
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TXT
smallshades.save( 'smallshades.png' )
smallshades.zoom(4).save( 'smallshadesx4.png' )
and let's put on the shades:
mr.compose!( smallshades, 5, 11 )
mr.zoom(4).save( 'mrmonalisax4_2.png' )
Step 3: Let's add the pipe.
pipe = Image.parse( <<TXT, colors: ['000000', '683c08', '855114', 'b9b9b980'] )
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TXT
pipe.save( 'pipe.png' )
pipe.zoom(4).save( 'pipex4.png' )
and let's smoke it:
mr.compose!( pipe, 13, 11 )
mr.save( 'mrmonalisa_3.png' )
mr.zoom(4).save( 'mrmonalisax4_3.png' )
Bingo! A pixel perfect copy original!
Why stop? Let's add the missing magic smile!
Step 4: Let's add a smile.
Yes, a smile - is a single pixel at the x/y coordinates 9/17.
mr[9,17] = Color::BLACK
mr.save( './i/mrmonalisa.png' )
mr.zoom(4).save( './i/mrmonalisax4.png' )
Now what? For fun let's redo all steps with a female alien punk archetype.
mrs = Image.parse( <<TXT, colors: ['000000', '75bdbd', '9be0e0', 'c8fbfb'] )
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TXT
mrs.zoom(4).save( 'mrsmonalisax4_0.png' )
And let's add the cap forward, the small shades, the pipe and the magic smile:
mrs.compose!( capforward, 7, 4 )
mrs.zoom(4).save( 'mrsmonalisax4_1.png' )
mrs.compose!( smallshades, 5, 11 )
mrs.zoom(4).save( 'mrsmonalisax4_2.png' )
mrs.compose!( pipe, 13, 11 )
mrs.zoom(4).save( 'mrsmonalisax4_3.png' )
mrs[10,17] = Color::BLACK
mrs.zoom(4).save( 'mrsmonalisax4.png' )
Let's put Mr & Mrs Mona Lisa together in a 2x1 composite.
mrmrs = Punks::Image::Composite.new( 2, 1 )
mrmrs << mr
mrmrs << mrs
mrmrs.save( 'mrmrsmonalisa.png' )
mrmrs.zoom(4).save( 'mrmrsmonalisax4.png' )
One more thing! Did you know? The original Mona Lisa is looking left not right! Let's mirror, that is, flip vertically for a "Mr & Mrs Mona Lisa, The Left Edition":
mrmrs.mirror.save( 'mrmrsmonalisa_left.png' )
mrmrs.mirror.zoom(4).save( 'mrmrsmonalisa_leftx4.png' )
That's it.
Now it's your turn. Yes, you can! Create the next super rare digital mona lisa where a $7.5 million price is a steal - a rounding error (roughly $0) - because obviously it's worth hundreds of millions if not priceless.