On Sunday (9 February), the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles will face off within the 59th Tremendous Bowl, the championship match for the NFL, the highest skilled American soccer league. Greater than 100 million tv viewers are set to tune in, and in-person attendees in New Orleans will embrace famous person Taylor Swift and US president Donald Trump. And followers of artwork have a motive to keep watch over the rating too: the result will decide the mortgage of a piece from the main artwork museum within the dropping metropolis to the highest artwork establishment within the successful metropolis.
This yr’s Tremendous Bowl artwork mortgage wager—identified colloquially as Museum Bowl—as soon as once more pits the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas Metropolis in opposition to the Philadelphia Museum of Artwork (PMA). The establishments final confronted off in 2023, when their groups each competed within the Tremendous Bowl. That yr the Chiefs gained, and so the PMA despatched one in every of its treasures, the Thomas Eakins portray Crusing (round 1875), to the Nelson-Atkins.
“Our mates in Philadelphia so loved their final go to to the Nelson-Atkins two years in the past that we count on to see them once more this yr, as we’re assured our staff will as soon as once more be victorious,” Julián Zugazagoitia, the director and chief government of the Nelson-Atkins, stated in a press release. “Philadelphia’s artwork museum has so many superb works that might look stunning in our galleries.”
Not one to be out-boasted, Sasha Suda, the director and chief government of the PMA, stated: “I can’t wait to host our mates and colleagues on the Nelson-Atkins right here in Philadelphia.” She added: “We’ll provide a correct Philly welcome as town celebrates our Eagles’ win on the Rocky Steps. There’s little question that we’re eyeing up their world-class assortment and fascinated by what would look greatest on our partitions.”
Each curatorial groups are nonetheless figuring out which work from their respective collections they may wager. Sports activities betting websites seem considerably cut up concerning the result of this yr’s Tremendous Bowl, although many give a razor-thin edge to Kansas Metropolis.
The Chiefs have the chance to change into the primary staff ever to win three Tremendous Bowls in a row, having defeated the San Francisco 49ers in 2024. Nevertheless, attributable to California legal guidelines banning sure varieties of playing, final yr’s wager didn’t contain the mortgage of a piece. As an alternative, following the 49ers’ defeat, San Francisco Museum of Trendy Artwork’s eatery discovered itself serving Kansas Metropolis barbecue (town claims to be the “world capital of barbecue”).
