As sports bettors are putting money on the line for the world series, two art museums are using a different currency — Claude Monet paintings.
The Milwaukee Art Museum started a wager with the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg Florida over the winner of the World Series between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Tampa Bay Rays.
“The director of the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Klaudio Rodriguez, and I both happened to be at a museum conference for American Art Museum directors in LA,” said Kim Sajet, director of the Milwaukee Art Museum. “We were sitting next to each other, and I said, ‘Hey, how about a wager?’ And he was like, ‘You’re on.’”
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If the Brewers win the World Series, the Milwaukee museum will display Monet’s 1904 painting “Houses of Parliament, Effect of Fog, London” through a temporary loan from the Museum of Fine Arts. If the Rays win, Milwaukee will loan its 1903 Monet, “Waterloo Bridge, Sunlight Effect,” to the Florida museum.
Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926), Houses of Parliament: Effect of Fog, London, 1904. This painting is currently on display in the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, Florida. Courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts,
St. Petersburg
Waterloo Bridge is MAM’s only Monet painting. Sajet said the painting in St. Petersburg is similar — both paintings were created around the same time, both featuring urban landscapes along the River Thames in London.
“I wanted something that I think everybody has heard of, like most people have heard of Claude Monet as a major impressionist,” Sajet said. “I thought this is perfect. It looks like they’re about the same size, hung together. There’ll be a mini Monet exhibition.”
This isn’t the first time MAM is putting their artwork on the line in the name of sports. In 2011, they held a wager with the Carnegie Museum of Art over the winner of Super Bowl XLV between the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Sajet said sports fans and museum fans are more similar than people might think.
“There is an assumption that sports fans are different from museum fans, and it’s actually not true,” she said. “You get to experience the excitement of people around you or alone, and that’s what you do with sports as well as in the museum.”
Milwaukee and Tampa Bay have placed other bets on the World Series, including one between Mayors Cavalier Johnson and Ken Welch. Both state they will rep the other team’s gear around their respective city if their team loses.
Sajet said she’s confident the Brewers will win. She said once the World Series is over, she will have a meeting with the MFA to discuss how long either city gets to display the prized Monet.
“Many people are talking about putting your Monet where your mouth is,” she said. “We’re pretty confident that we’re going to have a second picture come to us shortly. So go Brewers!”
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