museum news stories on Newser

The Weird Fight Over Oswald's Tombstone

Kevin Spak — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 14:23:29 CDT

The Historic Auto Attractions museum in Roscoe, Illinois, is home to a Lincoln once owned by Elvis, an Andy Griffith Show squad car, three Batmobiles, and... Lee Harvey Oswald's tombstone? It's not quite as weird as it sounds—the tiny museum has an array of non-vehicular esoterica, including a rocking...

'Art' Urinals Spark Rolling Stones Museum Furor

Matt Cantor — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:43:05 CST

A war has broken out over urinals in a German museum. Women's rights activists are furious over the mouth-shaped men's toilets at the Rolling Stones museum in a northern town, Der Spiegel reports. "Why does it have to be a woman's mouth?" asked one, saying she would have accepted the...

Schwarzenegger Unveils Statue of ... Himself

John Johnson — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 17:27:27 CDT

Arnold Schwarzenegger may be tabloid fodder in the US, but he's still a hometown hero in Thal, Austria. He unveiled a hulking statue of himself there today outside the home where he was born, which is now a museum dedicated to all things Arnold, reports the Telegraph . "For me, this...

340-Ton Rock Embarking on Epic Journey

Evann Gastaldo — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 12:22:05 CDT

When does it take nine days to travel 60 miles? When you’re towing a 21-foot-tall, 340-ton boulder. The solid piece of granite—known in Riverside, Calif., simply as “the rock”—is making the 60-mile journey from a quarry to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Press-Enterprise reports. Since...

Knut to Be Stuffed, Displayed

Evann Gastaldo — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 08:56:29 CDT

Knut spent his life on display in the Berlin Zoo, and in death he'll move to a museum. The famous bear will be stuffed and exhibited in Berlin's Natural History Museum, the New York Post reports, citing the Times of London. Even as veterinarians examined Knut to determine a cause...

To Flee Mob, Italian Museum Seeks Asylum in Germany

Rob Quinn — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 03:37:55 CST

The director of a Naples museum is urging Germany to grant asylum to the museum and its staff seeking to flee the mob. Antonio Manfredi says the contemporary art museum has been plagued by vandalism and threats from the local Mafia. The museum has put on exhibitions dealing with social...

San Francisco Opens Country's First Gay Museum

Evann Gastaldo — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 13:04:05 CST

What holds sex toys, manuscripts, and Harvey Milk’s pink sunglasses? America’s first gay museum, opening today in San Francisco. The GLBT History Museum is only the second of its kind in the world; the other is in Germany, reports the Chronicle . The city should have had such a museum “long...

Louvre Begs for Painting Cash

Rob Quinn — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 02:59:28 CST

For the first time in its 217-year history, the Louvre is asking the French public to help it buy a painting—and the French aren't happy about. The museum is a million euros short of the 4 million it needs to buy the 16th-century oil painting Three Graces, and it...

Gentlemen Senators, Please Give Women Their Due

John Johnson — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 14:47:26 CDT

The idea is a great one, writes Gail Collins, and it's also uncontroversial and long overdue: Put up a national museum in DC dedicated to women's history. In fact, a private group is seeking permission to buy federal land at market price and build it at no cost to taxpayers....