What 630,000 paintings say about the world economy

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Two figures share a table, but not much companionship, in a Parisian café. The man looks distracted, a pipe gripped in his mouth. The woman, eyes down, shoulders slumped, nurses a glass of moss-green absinthe. The painting, unveiled by Edgar Degas in 1876, boasts several titles (“L’Absinthe”, “In a Café” and others). It also divides opinion. One viewer, appalled by the woman’s loose morning shoes and the thought of her soiled petticoats, saw the painting as a cautionary tale against idleness and “low vice”. He then changed his mind. “The picture is merely a work of art”, he later said, “and has nothing to do with drink or sociology.”