The Museum of Bad Art

[CalMeacham]

We tried to visit the Museum of Bad Art in Somerville, MA yesterday. The MOBA used to be in dedham, but moved to the basement of the Somerville Theater in Davis Square several years ago. I’d wanted to see it for a long time, and MiliCal finally suggested it as an appropriate Family Outing. Which, for our Family, it was.

Admission was free with purchase of a movie ticket, and we considered going to see Deadpool (which MiliCal had already seen) or 10 Cloverfield Lane). As it turned out, the Museum was closed for an Irish Film Festival, so we couldn’t get in at all. Since that was our prime motivation, we skipped the theater altogether, walked through the square, looked in the shops, and got a bite to eat. We fortuitously got there too late to be blocked by some sort of race, and too early to be trapped by a parade.
But the Museum will still be worth a visit. Consider the following description:

The loss of two MOBA works to theft has drawn media attention, and enhanced the museum’s stature. In 1996, the painting Eileen, by R. Angelo Le, vanished from MOBA. Eileen was acquired from the trash by Wilson, and features a rip in the canvas where someone slashed it with a knife even before the museum acquired it, “adding an additional element of drama to an already powerful work,” according to MOBA.

The museum offered a reward of $6.50 for the return of Eileen, and although MOBA donors later increased that reward to $36.73, the work remained unrecovered for many years. The Boston Police listed the crime as “larceny, other,” and Sacco was reported saying she was unable to establish a link between the disappearance of Eileen and a notorious heist at Boston’s famed Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum that occurred in 1990. In 2006—10 years after Eileen was stolen—MOBA was contacted by the purported thief demanding a $5,000 ransom for the painting; no ransom was paid, but it was returned anyway.

Prompted by the theft of Eileen, MOBA staff installed a fake video camera over a sign at their Dedham branch reading: “Warning. This gallery is protected by fake video cameras.” Despite this deterrent, in 2004 Rebecca Harris’ Self Portrait as a Drainpipe was removed from the wall and replaced with a ransom note demanding $10, although the thief neglected to include any contact information. Soon after its disappearance the painting was returned, with a $10 donation. Curator Michael Frank speculates that the thief had difficulty fencing the portrait because “reputable institutions refuse to negotiate with criminals.”

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/04/thefts_at_the_m.html

Here in all her awful glory is Eileen

http://www.museumofbadart.org/coll1/image09.php
Here’s the clearly-labeled Fake Security Camera:

Here’s the Self-Portrait as a Drainpipe:
https://museum-of-bad-art.culturalspot.org/asset-viewer/self-portrait-as-a-drainpipe/OAFx_WTjrcz0jw?hl=en
Here’s the MOBA official website:
http://www.museumofbadart.org/

[Kimstu]

I went to the MOBA once! It is truly…um…unforgettable.

[Daylate]

Heck, I’ve seen a lot worse artwork than “Eileen”. Almost anything by Pablo Picasso, for instance.

[Leo_Krupe]

I love MOBA and have been visiting the website for years. Too bad you couldn’t get in to the physical museum, it’d be great to see Sunday on the Pot With George in all its flattering reality.

Although “Lucy in the Sky With Flowers” has to be the signpost so to speak of the collection.

[Accidental_Martyr]

@CalMeacham

Here’s the Self-Portrait as a Drainpipe:
https://museum-of-bad-art.culturalspot.org/asset-viewer/self-portrait-as-a-drainpipe/OAFx_WTjrcz0jw?hl=en[/url

“Tempura” paint.