The and the are getting in on the big-game action this week, wagering the loan of artworks on the outcome of the Super Bowl on Feb. 2 when the Denver Broncos play the Seattle Seahawks.
Denver has put up a prized piece from its , Frederic Remington’s 1895 bronze “The Broncho Buster.”
Seattle has on the line a forehead mask, attributed to the . The piece, from around 1880, is made of red cedar bark and other materials and looks something like a seahawk.
The winning city gets to show the artwork for three months. The losing city has to cover shipping.
The bet comes with the requisite bluster from museum directors, each bragging in press releases that their team will be victorious.
Museum bets are the one of the newer traditions in football wagering. In 2011, the Milwaukee Art Museum, not too far from Green Bay, Wisconsin, and the Carnegie Museum of Art, in Pittsburgh, put s few Impressionist pieces on the table. The rest is art history.
Ray Mark Rinaldi: 303-954-1540, rrinaldi@denverpost.com or twitter.com/rayrinaldi
