In the 90s, Lena was pretty much one of the images you spent a lot of time looking at if you were in compression research. It was part of a standard set of images we were always comparing agains.

I want to say the last time I ran across mention of Lena was either here on HN or through a rant of Charles Bloom -- http://cbloomrants.blogspot.com

I do find the story fascinating each time I read it.