Wednesday, March 02, 2005

Buildings in museums

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Not content with collecting and storing beautiful objects or works of art, some museums actually own entire rooms. Usually from threatened houses, they are made structurally sound, taken apart, and put into store or reassembled inside the museum to be walked through or peeped into.

The photo above is of a French cloister in a monastery near Montpellier, France. Except that it’s actually in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. The building it’s built around contains other cloisters, too. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen entire buildings moved into a completely different country, but it’s certainly the most impresssive example of the practice. All that stone. Phew!

The Museum’s website is a joy to use, and you will find your favourites — I particularly enjoyed the sections on Islamic Art and Modern Art.

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