What makes a painting famous?

Today, another perfect sunny day, we went to Trafalgar Square and went to the National Gallery. There are so many famous paintings there and you get right up close to them. You could touch them. There are paintings by Rembrandt, Turner, Michelangelo (his even got in there when they weren't finished yet), Leonardo da Vinci, Monet (His garden is pretty nice), Raphael, Picasso and heaps of others. I saw the 'Sunflowers' painting by Van Gogh and I would have to say it is the most ordinary painting in the gallery. Why all the fuss? Apart from its monetary value, I would pick hundreds of others before I would choose it.
I am interested in the subjects of the paintings, except for the sunflowers. There were a lot of women with wardrobe malfunctions. What was their preopcupation with bare breasts all about? There was one painting where some godess had milk squirting out of her breasts, creating the milky way. I always wondersed where that came from. If you wore some of the outfits they wore in their pictures, you would be arrested. There are naked people all over the place. The kids especially were so fat. In King Henry V111's palace there were paintings that would not just be seen as pornograghic but the artist would have been put in jail as a pedophile. The paintings are so huge some of them and they are so beautiful. The colours and textures are amazing. I wonder why the virgin Mary always seems to wear blue. Probably goes well with her blue eyes and blonde hair which she seems to have in most pictures. Not likely in the Middle East. I guess they wanted to get people to relate to Jesus and Mary so they made them look Anglo Saxon. There is lots of Bible story stuff and mythical Gods like Cupid with the ocassional war scene or family portrait. Some of the paintings you could sit for hours looking at. I must admit that some of the things they say the artist was trying to say are a bit of a stretch. But the artists aren't around to say that, 'No its just a bowl of fruit'. They wouldn't allow us to take any photos, even without a flash and everyone was really well behaved.
On another note, look what we saw on the way to the railway station, hiding in a bush. Could this be the evil squirrel from 'Hoodwinked'? Click on the photo to see. His eyes only show their true colours when photographed.
Anyway, its farwell to London and hello to Budapest tomorrow. How exciting!We have had a wonderful time, thanks to the kindness and hospitality of our friends, John and Lynne Carruthers, who are great cooks. Thank you so much for making this such an unforgetable experience.