Are you missing a portrait of an ancestor? Or maybe a dulcimer? How about a colonial South American bookstand? They might be at the Memorial Art Gallery (MAG)! More than 600 mystery items are waiting to be claimed at the MAG. They aren’t part of the museum’s collection and the MAG’s curators don’t know how they ended up there, despite years of analysis. So now, the MAG is asking for your help, and it’s invoking a new state law that helps museums manage undocumented items.
We talk about a handful of those items, we explore their possible origins, and we’ll discuss what could happen to them next. Our sleuths in studio:
- Jess Marten, curator in charge, and curator of American art at the Memorial Art Gallery
- Kerry Schauber, curatorial research assistant at the Memorial Art Gallery
- Nancy Norwood, curator of European art at the Memorial Art Gallery