Several masterpieces by the 16th century painter, Pieter Bruegel from the Low Countries, can function as eyeopeners to understand how 'popular culture' is mediated or how successful multi-media inventaries can be for cultural repertoires. These paintings were also used in Peter Burke's Popular Culture in Early Modem Europe. ln order to fully understand the recent developments before and since the 2003 UNESCO Convention, it is necessary to situate these in a long term perspective, and Burke's book remains a relevant classic. This exercise helps us to recognise a number of implicit or invisible criteria for the lists of the Convention - like the 'no-electricity' rule. For the UNESCO lists, both popular and court/elite forms of culture from outside Europe seem to qualify, but for Europe, only expressions of popular culture are listed; the 'elite culture' tacitly falls outside the scope, up to now.