Museums Are Hilariously Battling Over Who Has The Best Butt Exhibit

YorkshireMuseum

Museums get up to some very interesting and weird things on social media. Especially during Coronavirus lockdown. So the Yorkshire Museum launched a worldwide battle between curators to see which museum has the very best butt in its collection…

I am loving this #CURATORBATTLE for #bestmuseumbum ! I present a long-necked #plesiosaur bum hanging out at @DenverMuseumNS! #FossilFriday pic.twitter.com/LTOJA3LXgv

— Christina Byrd (@christinabyrd88) July 3, 2020

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

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

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

Turns out we have a lot of bums and bottoms in our collections. 🍑

In the end we decided on two of our oldest so here is the approx. 3,500 year old bum of Egyptian deity Bes and this delightful Peruvian whistle pot bottom from 1350-1500. 😏#CuratorBattle #BestMuseumBum pic.twitter.com/UlD74WedJc

— Aberdeen Uni Museums and Special Collections (@uoacollections) June 26, 2020

"You can look but you can't touch it
If you touch it
I'm a start some drama."

This sentiment was sadly ignored in the case of this figure.

You see the shiny, flattened 🍑?

That's because people couldn't resist touching her hump (hump). 🙄#BestMuseumBum #CURATORBATTLE pic.twitter.com/7Pb0hZJRZI

— Museum of Oxford (@MuseumofOxford) June 26, 2020

For today’s #CURATORBATTLE (or perhaps #CURATORREBUTTAL?) theme of #BestMuseumBum, we present Hercules knocking it out of the park…

A work by the goldsmith Francesco Pomarano, this boxwood statuette was already a celebrated piece in the #sixteenthcentury.#WallaceFromHome pic.twitter.com/3LoD6JkIOa

— Wallace Collection (@WallaceMuseum) June 26, 2020

This cheeky little number can be found nestling in the leaded windows at Bramall Hall. It is one of a set of 4 hand painted stained glass panels in the Great Hall. #CURATORBATTLE #BestMuseumBum 🍑 pic.twitter.com/wVCjpBCrxx

— Bramall_Hall (@Bramall_Hall) June 26, 2020

We'll have a crack at this😉🍑
Pert and perfectly formed at 4000 years old, introducing the Dagenham Idol for the #BestMuseumBum #CURATORBATTLE @museumbums pic.twitter.com/SiOOCSLTyO

— Valence House (@ValenceHouse) June 26, 2020

Is it getting hot in here, or is it just me?

This Valentine’s Day card was sold at Fenwick’s department store in York in 1987. Although printed with I LOVE YOU inside, this copy was never sent…

I would have kept it for myself too. #BestMuseumBum #CuratorBattle pic.twitter.com/GOBF8NKPwx

— York Castle Museum (@YorkCastle) June 26, 2020

💥 #BestMuseumBum themed #CURATORBATTLE today💥

The Cowdray Engraving shows the sinking of the Mary Rose during the Battle of the Solent. Turns out is also shows a lot of Tudor bums!

Our top pick is this sassy gentleman by @Southsea_Castle, he knows he's rocking his breeches! pic.twitter.com/18wgio1bKl

— The Mary Rose (@MaryRoseMuseum) June 26, 2020

You want bums? We've got some bums! We'll start with this "Humorous Cards" because object titles can be hard, but wordplay is always fun. 🍑 #BestMuseumBum#CURATORBATTLE pic.twitter.com/C7vSTgWTHu

— East Riding Museums (@ERMuseums) June 26, 2020

We also have a military #BestMuseumBum
This photograph is of members of the East Riding Yeomanry when they were stationed in Egypt. This is a makeshift swimming pool for diving and swimming contests where, "trunks were neither provided, nor necessary". 🍑 😳 #CURATORBATTLE pic.twitter.com/Oky9yDqVHt

— East Riding Museums (@ERMuseums) June 26, 2020

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

We don't wanna be the butt of any jokes this #CURATORBATTLE, cause our entry is pants. Literally. 🩲

With no #BestMuseumBum, here's the closest thing! Part of some 3,500 year old underpants, excavated in Thebes & made to protect your 🍑

Can you spot them on the tomb paintings? pic.twitter.com/FLsctrfqXg

— National Leather Collection (@museumofleather) June 26, 2020

Oh butt you haven't seen ours yet. We thought we'd take a crack at this week's #CURATORBATTLE with these peaches @AngleseyAbbey #BestMuseumBum. We can confirm that bottom dusting is an important part of our conservation work. pic.twitter.com/U5LZITXWPp

— National Trust in the East (@East_England_NT) June 26, 2020

Well, we don't want to be left behind. We think we've got to the bottom of it and this William Etty nude is the #BestMuseumBum pic.twitter.com/ExrNw2vzaE

— Anglesey Abbey (@AngleseyAbbeyNT) June 26, 2020

Zeus’s bottom is always a real crowd-pleaser, too. This bronze cast of a statue of the Greek god dates back to c.470 BC, and is about 2 metres tall #CURATORBATTLE pic.twitter.com/t8TNdhwvhD

— Ashmolean Museum (@AshmoleanMuseum) June 26, 2020

Well as it's National Insect Week, it would be rude not to share one of our impressive #insect 'bums'! What about this male blowfly (Calliphoridae), Cynomya mortuorum? #FlyFriday #NIW2020 #CURATORBATTLE #BestMuseumBum pic.twitter.com/VTpQJczgJr

— Natural Sciences NMS (@NatSciNMS) June 26, 2020

Same derriere, different decade

You can track Henry VIII's burgeoning bottom through our collection of his combat armours. The Tudor tubster went from a modest 32in waist in 1520 to a whopping 51in booty by 1540.

A 60% increase in trunk junk 🍑 pic.twitter.com/vpx9mQyCpA

— Royal Armouries (@Royal_Armouries) June 26, 2020

The angular side bum on this stonking cow has overtones of ABSOLUTE UNIT, and we all know how that went down #absolutechampion #BestMuseumBum#CuratorBattle

https://t.co/PUSNu0BujV for more info) pic.twitter.com/I87Ltp31jN

— National Museums Scotland (@NtlMuseumsScot) June 26, 2020

#BestMuseumBum has reminded us of the pre lockdown days and the #DollyPartonChallenge#CURATORBATTLE pic.twitter.com/QRsM8RvAxQ

— Barnsley Museums (@BarnsleyMuseums) June 26, 2020

When I saw #BestMuseumBum I immediately though that I have to share this pic. Because two bums are better than one… especially if they belong to Greek Gods🤣 Here "Hermes and the Infant Dionysus", attributed to Praxiteles, on exhibit at the Museum of Olympia, Greece pic.twitter.com/vR8fLmXBlU

— Carla Ardis (@Carla_Ardis) June 26, 2020

St Michael (battling the devil)'s bottom – [UCL Main library] #bestmuseumbum #CURATORBATTLE [pic taking this morning whilst staffing our temporary serving desk] pic.twitter.com/0J0SsWvnv6

— Magali (@MAntheaume) July 1, 2020

Not only do we have a competitor for #BestMuseumBum but it's a working bum, listed in our collections database as a storm drain/tunnel with "bum for scale". Photographer Alf Gentle was clearly ahead of his time. pic.twitter.com/fKe73VY0HE

— St Albans Museums (@stalbansmuseums) June 26, 2020

Now THIS is the #CuratorBattle we've been waiting for…

Say hello to our #BestMuseumBum courtesy of our anatomical model! What a lovely 🍑, and educational as well 🤓 pic.twitter.com/Z151HzKGzQ

— The Old Operating Theatre Museum & Herb Garret (@OldOpTheatre) June 26, 2020

Try this cheeky number from our Bamforth Postcard collection!#CURATORBATTLE #BestMuseumBum pic.twitter.com/8b2LpvNVMM

— Kirklees Museums (@KirkleesMuseums) June 26, 2020

This naughty ancestral couple is too 18-rated on the front, so we'll just show you their bums 🤭#BestMuseumBum #CuratorBattle #MuseoLarco #AncientPeru pic.twitter.com/aog8gM94V6

— Museo Larco (@MuseoLarco) June 26, 2020

Move over museums, make way for the archives bringing some divine booty! 🍒🍑🍒#CuratorBattle #BestMuseumBum pic.twitter.com/hGjcPTRs2q

— UoN Manuscripts (@mssUniNott) June 26, 2020

I really fancy this cute bum by Albrecht Dürer 🍑, it's suppose to be Hercules and, yes, he has a rooster on his head (probably because he is french, like me) 🐓

Right now the site is under maintenance, but you should be able to see it here quite soon 👉https://t.co/tvgdSb5zWf pic.twitter.com/GwlIulNDsI

— La musée (@L_amusee) June 26, 2020

The @naturalsciences Non-molluscan Invertebrate Collection is back on literal footing for this week’s #CURATORBATTLE of #BestMuseumBum via #Invertebutt

This sea cucumber has the best bum (butt which end?) AND it also has the best poops (R image @oceanexplorer Okeanos) #1001jars pic.twitter.com/WoYjMvyydy

— B.W. Williams (@BWWilliamsLab) June 26, 2020

Our #BestMuseumBum 🍑 👇https://t.co/MoY6rc5S0I pic.twitter.com/HTRWseU3CR

— Musée Saint-Raymond (@MSR_Tlse) June 26, 2020

I saw this work by Aristide Maillol last year at @KunsthalleHH and it's most likely the biggest butt I've ever seen. #bestmuseumbum @MuseumBums pic.twitter.com/GcqPsytsNr

— Jan Van Assche (@instajan66) July 7, 2020

Petits joueurs. Mine is bigger anywhere you look. pic.twitter.com/tq5iKD26uL

— Isabelle Gachet (@Isabellegachet) July 7, 2020

Rugby Changing Room, Carmarthen by Ken Etheridge (1959)#CuratorBattle pic.twitter.com/kLywma8HUY

— World Rugby Museum (@wrugbymuseum) June 26, 2020

Our Arctic Wolf taxidermy has a very.. realistic bum.#BestMuseumBum? 😬 pic.twitter.com/sJ0geqELdS

— Brandon General Museum & Archives (@TheBGMA) June 26, 2020

From the Huddersfield Art Gallery collection, we give you this painting by Henry Scott Tuke (1858-1929). It's titled 'The Blue Jacket' because that's obviously what the artist was focusing on… #BestMuseumBum #CURATORBATTLE pic.twitter.com/hmgBwjFvwV

— Hudds Art Gallery (@HuddsArtGallery) June 26, 2020

Our’s is more a lack of #bestmuseumbum… our poor Hercules looks like he might have a cracking bum from the top of Gilbert’s hill but close up it’s a bit of a disappointment… pic.twitter.com/VjBdsgJU1v

— Gilbert White & The Oates Collections (@GilbertWhites) June 26, 2020

Just one of many #bestmuseumbum in our collection this sketch in pen and ink with a grey wash titled 'A Group of Boys About a Rail' by John Flaxman (1755-1826) is our entry for today's #CURATORBATTLE Flaxman proving once again he was a master of the human form! #flaxman #art pic.twitter.com/kumYcKB58x

— UCL Art Museum (@UCLArtMuseum) June 26, 2020

Georg Raphael Donner’s River Traun in the Lower Belvedere, Vienna #CURATORBATTLE #BestMuseumBum pic.twitter.com/oFYcniPb1D

— BEFS (@TheBEFS) June 26, 2020

We don't think you can beat these two floofy butts, courtesy of rabbits Tommy and Bella in the Animal Walk 🐇🐰 #BestMuseumBum #CURATORBATTLE pic.twitter.com/sSjWJFjBXz

— Horniman Museum and Gardens (@HornimanMuseum) June 29, 2020

We don't have a lot of bums in our collection BUT we do have a postcard with this bum 🍑

Sharing bums has always been a fun Parry Sound past time😝and we're happy to continue the legacy #BestMuseumBum #CURATORBATTLE #WPSDMuseum pic.twitter.com/dfeJBPCIn0

— Museum on Tower Hill (@WPSDMuseum) June 26, 2020

I submit my personal favourite.. best way to exit the V&A ;) #BestMuseumBum pic.twitter.com/fStBht9Itl

— LittleNeng (@LittleNeng) June 26, 2020