![]() ![]() In 1965, the Met did buy a work for $225 that turned out to be the handiwork of Leonardo da Vinci. ![]() Frankweiler. If the story sounds too good to be true, that’s because it is true-at least partially. In The Mixed-up Files, protagonists Claudia and Jamie find themselves chasing down the origins of an angel statue possibly carved by Michelangelo that the Met bought for a bargain basement price of $250, only to discover Mrs. Mixed-Up Files won the annual Newbery Medal for excellence in American children's literature in 1968, and Konigsburg's first-published book Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth was one of the runners-up in the same year, the only double honor in Newbery history (from 1922). In a special letter published in the Met’s magazine, Konigsburg wrote: “How had that lonely piece of popcorn arrived on the seat of that blue silk chair? Had someone sneaked in one night-it could not have happened during the day-slipped behind the barrier, sat in that chair, and snacked on popcorn? For a long time after leaving the Museum that day, I thought about that piece of popcorn on the blue silk chair and how it got there.”Īt the heart of Konigsburg’s story is also a juicy art mystery. Since the chair was off limits, blocked off with a velvet rope, her curiosity about how the popcorn had landed in such an unlikely place ran wild. During a visit to the museum with her children, Konigsburg spotted a single popcorn kernel on a blue silk chair that was displayed in one of the museum’s period rooms. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |