Museums Fight Over Who Has the Best Butt Art

We love a good social media battle. We especially love when museums get involved. You see, contrary to the silliness that goes down when fast-food restaurants duel on Twitter, there’s a lovely nerdiness to museum banter. And it’s typically rooted in the displays and art the museums showcase. Meaning, not only do we get to witness the unfolding of a petty argument, but we also get an art history lesson.

William Etty / Katsushika Hokusai

That’s certainly the case in the latest museum Twitter showdown. And what’s the topic, you ask? Butts, of course! As we learned from Bored Panda, the Yorkshire Museum in the U.K. challenged their fellow museums to a #CuratorChallenge for #BestMuseumBum. They kicked the challenge off with their own most exquisite derriere, as seen in a marble statue from Rome.

Museums from all over rose up to the challenge. As you’ll soon learn, there are a ton of butts in museums all over the globe. Just a lot of bums in art in general.

The Ota Memorial Museum of Art shared this lovely bum, as seen in a painting by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai.

How about these bums of SUMO wrestlers in our collections? These bums were painted by Hokusai!! #CURATORBATTLE #BestMuseumBum #おうちで浮世絵 pic.twitter.com/DH4rAyQ8Xs

— 太田記念美術館 Ota Memorial Museum of Art (@ukiyoeota) June 26, 2020

The Andy Warhol Museum offered their contribution.

Some of the butt art is just downright weird.

We raise your athlete and instead give you the bum of a drunken fish. Yes you heard me.

Made by Pamela Mei Yee Leung, it was part of a body of work which married animals and humans together to create mythological creatures with personalities. #BestMuseumBum #CuratorBattle pic.twitter.com/qUAa3NgGcG

— York Art Gallery (@YorkArtGallery) June 26, 2020

Some very beautiful in a relatable way.

Another #CURATORBATTLE Etty for #BestMuseumBum today, this time ‘Man Lying Face Down’.

We like to think he’s just been to the freezer and realised he ate the last Cornetto last night. And that he can’t get the drawer back in and that the whole freezer needs defrosting ☀️ pic.twitter.com/7pJ9gfTVdN

— Scarborough Museums (@SMTrust) June 26, 2020

And we’re always happy to learn more of the owners of the butts.

It’s not just classic paintings and statues getting in on the fun. This coffee pot also joined the #BestBumChallenge.

As did these bees from the Grant Museum of Zoology.

In honour of #NIW2020 we submit the Bumblebee (Bombus sp.) for this weeks #CURATORBATTLE #bestmuseumbum though floofiest (technical term) bum must surely go to the Bee Hawkmoth (Hemaris tityus) #EntoAtHome #insects #minibeasts pic.twitter.com/zRNj2NBkNz

— Grant Museum of Zoology (@GrantMuseum) June 26, 2020

We really recommend heading over to the hashtag for even more butt brilliance. Thank you to the museums for providing us such hilarious, nerdy content.

Featured Image: William Etty / Katsushika Hokusai