Which museum butt reigns supreme? This curator battle settles it once and for all

In Greek mythology, one of the most iconic events was a war waged over the love of “fairest” gal Helen of Troy. (Okay, maybe that’s not super accurate but I do like to believe that’s the gist of the 2004 film “Troy” starring Brad Pitt.)

Another historic battle has been waged in 2020, but this time it’s for the title of #BestMuseumBum.

If you haven’t been over to the museum side of Twitter (and I suggest you do), you might have been missing out on Yorkshire Museum’s delightful weekly #CuratorBattle. On June 26, they challenged fellow curators to beat their entry for the best butt showcased in a museum. They posted photos of a Roman marble statuette of an athlete with a crack that looks as if someone took a bite out of its peachy bottom.

IT’S TIME FOR #CURATORBATTLE!💥

Today’s theme is #BestMuseumBum!

This cracking Roman marble statuette depicts an athlete at the peak of fitness! It may have decorated the town house of one of Eboracum’s wealthier residents. Has someone taken a bite out of this 🍑?

BEAT THAT!💥 pic.twitter.com/N3A6KYz339

— Yorkshire Museum (@YorkshireMuseum) June 26, 2020

Butt connoisseurs, avid listeners of “My Humps” by Black Eyed Peas and art history fans, feast your eyes on some of the rumps that were submitted for this friendly competition.

Japan’s Ota Memorial Museum of Art raised these sumo wrestler buttocks painted by ukiyo-e painter and printmaker Katsushika Hokusai.

The image on the right is me trying to get into any of my clothes after lockdown! #BestMuseumBum #CuratorBattle

— Yorkshire Museum (@YorkshireMuseum) June 26, 2020

The Wallace Collection presented Francesco Pomarano’s boxwood Hercules statuette holding up a club and tooching his bootie.

He must be doing like 400 squats a day #BestMuseumBum #CuratorBattle

— Yorkshire Museum (@YorkshireMuseum) June 26, 2020

National Museums Scotland’s natural sciences department shook up the competition with an image of male botfly’s creepy looking pointed bum.

I never thought this thread would give me a scary looking bum but here we are. 👏#BestMuseumBum #CuratorBattle

— Yorkshire Museum (@YorkshireMuseum) June 26, 2020

There are many interesting entries for this hilarious and educational virtual project. The York Museums Trust communications manager Lee Clark said in an interview with Bored Panda, “Curator Battle is very much a team effort—with members of the Communications, Digital, Public Engagement, and Curatorial meeting every week to discuss our social media output, including the themes for the battles. Essentially, we want to create an online exhibition of objects from around the world under a given theme. Something like this would take years to plan for a physical exhibition, but on Twitter, it can appear in a few hours or days!”

Their latest theme is #TremendousTransport and the London Transport Museum was pretty confident in bagging a win with their quadruple decker bus.

I mean, if there was ever a time we were going to win a #CURATORBATTLE now is the time with #tremendoustransport.

So, here we go.

To start, with what's better than a double decker bus? A quadruple decker bus of course! https://t.co/5XhuHmbstr pic.twitter.com/MumqhP8V1k

— London Transport Museum (@ltmuseum) July 10, 2020

Some of their past themes include #MysteryObject and #CreepiestObject. Whether your interest is niche or not, it’s hard not to get hooked on a #CuratorBattle that settles questions we didn’t know we wanted to be answered until now.

Photo courtesy of Inés Castellano on Unsplash

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