>

Huh. I didn’t know this. I’ve only ever seen her as sad. I didn’t know people saw her as happy. 
I’m definitely gonna be talking to my therapist about this.
I assumed it was only famous because it was stolen. >

Pretty much, nobody cared before that >

It’s not exactly the ambiguous smile. 
It’s a psychological painting. The idea is that when people are happy they tend to see her as happy and when they’re sad they tend to see her as somber. That’s why the painting is so famous. Because it’s the same face but people manage to project different emotions on the face based on their own mood. 
I mean it’s influential. If you say overrated I say okay but it’s from a more historic art movement. It’s one image.
These days people can see movies so it’s a different ball game. Only so much you can do with a still image.