Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Seattle, Denver Art Museums Bet Artworks In Super Bowl Wager

When the Seattle Seahawks take on the Denver Broncos in the Super Bowl on Sunday, the directors at two art museums will be paying close attention to the outcome of the game.

The Seattle Art Museum has bet the Denver Art Museum a temporary loan of a major work of art. The winner gets to display the loser's art, which will be on loan for three months.

Denver has bet a bronze sculpture of a cowboy atop a bucking bronco by Frederic Remington. Seattle picked a carved wooden Northwest Coast Native American mask by the Nuxalk First Nation. It has a very familiar look.

"We know that the Seahawks logo is based loosely on Northwest Coast Native American design," said SAM director Kim Rorschach."It just seemed natural to choose one of our great works that is of a bird and reminiscent of that logo."

Rorschach says if Seattle loses, then folks in Denver will have no choice but to stare at something that screams Seahawks. But SAM is betting it'll soon have something new to show the 12th Man.