artsy news: the superbowl bet

so, since the colts lost, the indianapolis museum of art will be loaning joseph turner's "the fifth plague of egypt" to the new orleans museum of art. had we won, NOMA would have loaned claude lorrain's "ideal view of tivoli". apparently there is going to be quite a big space on the wall at the IMA, as the turner was prominently placed...  full story below

 

Sports and art don’t usually mix. But this year, on Super Bowl Sunday, they will.

Two directors from Super Bowl contender city art museums–the New Orleans Museum of Art and the Indianapolis Museum of Art–are getting in on the Big Game by wagering major art loans on the outcome of the Saints-Colts matchup.

The bet, just finalized this afternoon, is this: If the Colts win, IMA will get a three-month loan of NoMA’s 1644 painting “Ideal View of Tivoli” by Claude Lorrain, a French artist considered the father of landscape painting. If the Saints win, NoMA will get to borrow IMA’s Joseph Turner oil painting “The Fifth Plague of Egypt,” for three months. Both works are now hung prominently in their respective museums.

“There’s going to be a big hole in the wall if it has to go south,” says IMA director Maxwell Anderson of the Turner painting.

Initially, Anderson kicked off betting by offering a painting by Ingrid Calame. But John Bullard, NoMA’s director, countered by calling it “insignificant.” He placed the museum’s $4 million Renoir “Seamstress at a Window” on the table, to which Anderson tweeted: “We’ll see that sentimental blancmange by that ‘China Painter’ and raise you a proper trophy.” (The “trophy” is a jeweled cup by Jean-Valentin Morel made of gold, emerald, rubies and sapphire that won the Gran Medal at the 1855 Paris World’s Fair.) Bullard rejected it, and in an interview called the piece “a gaudy tchotchke.”

At one point, Anderson asked for NoMA’s portrait of Marie Antoinette by Élisabeth-Louise Vigee Lebrun, which, via the museum’s Twitter account, Bullard said was “too fragile to travel, much like Favre,” a dig at the Vikings quarterback whom the Saints beat in overtime on Sunday.

The idea for the wager was spurred by arts blogger Tyler Green, who earlier this week tweeted and wrote on his Modern Art Notes blog that the two should make a bet on the Super Bowl. Anderson took the bait right away. “I thought it was a great way to get people who follow sports but don’t necessarily consider arts at the top of their agenda to pay attention,” he tells Speakeasy.

Naturally, both museums are convinced that they won’t need to bust out the packing materials and spackle come Super Bowl Sunday. Anderson says he’s already spoken with his curator of early European Art and determined where the Claude Lorrain painting will hang. “We’re in full battle cry, preparing for the glorious arrival,” he says.

Bullard says New Orleans is looking forward to the potential loan. “We’re the magic team this year,” says Bullard of the Saints. “I’m absolutely confident.”

from: http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/01/27/art-musuems-make-a-super-bowl-bet/tab/article/

original bet post: http://www.artsjournal.com/man/2010/01/super_bowl_loan_challenge.html