Film director Wes Anderson has teamed up with his partner, writer and illustrator Juman Malouf, to present a specially-curated exhibition in Vienna that presents hand-picked treasures from the vaults of the Kunsthistorisches Museum.
Wes Anderson & Juman Malouf at the exhibition. Image by Rafaela Proell
In 2012, the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna began a series of exhibitions that invited creative individuals to present their own personal selections of objects drawn from the museum’s historical archives, a vast collection that includes more than four million objects and spans a period of five thousand years. The third instalment in the series, entitled Spitzmaus Mummy in a Coffin and other Treasures, opened on 6 November, and saw Anderson and Malouf teaming up with staff to assemble over 400 unique objects.
The exhibition includes over 400 hand-selected pieces. Image by © KHM-Museumsverband
Among the exhibition are Egyptian, Greek and Roman antiquities, Old Master paintings, selections from the Kunstkammer and the Imperial Treasury, items from the Imperial Armoury, Coin Collection, and Collection of Historic Musical Instruments, as well as pieces from the Theatermuseum, the Weltmuseum, the Imperial Carriage Museum. Guests can see a necklace of ceramic beads strung together in Ancient Egypt, as well as a wooden monkey carved in Indonesia almost 5000 years ago.
The exhibition is open now at the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna. Image by © KHM-Museumsverband
The pair sorted through diverse objects, linking some together by theme, colour, design and history. “We place the painting of a seven-year-old falconer (Emperor Charles V) next to the portrait of a four-year-old dog-owner (Emperor Ferdinand II) in order to emphasise the evolution of natural gesso; a box for the storage of Spanish powdered wigs goes next to a case for the storage of the crown of the king of Italy because both were so clearly shaped and formed by the introduction of the hinge,” Wes Anderson said of the exhibition.
Items in the exhibition were assembled under different themes, such as colour and material. Image by © KHM-Museumsverband
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with text contributions from Sabine Haag, Jasper Sharp and Wes Anderson. “Guests can expect to enter a chamber of wonders,” Nina Auinger of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna told Lonely Planet Travel News.
More information on visiting is available at the official Kunsthistorisches Museum website.
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