Crown of what?

Okyeame Poma, or Linguist staff, at the DMA

In her ceaseless search for anything fun, and out of the ordinary, my friend came with me for a stroll through a local museum. We walked through halls and rooms as if the paintings were there to look at us, and not the opposite, which is what we were supposedly doing there. Sometimes a short look to a portrait induced new topics of conversation, but the talk was mostly about work, family, and everything that lies outside of the walls of this particular museum. 

I imagine that for an art fan, people like us can be extremely lousy. We hardly ever stopped to appreciate the pieces, and when we did, we were a little too near, and a little too random.

When strolling through the American decoration and design section, I noticed that a guard was quietly following us. My guess is that we were too loud and she wanted to give us a look. My friend, probably unaware of it all, decided to start a rather provocative conversation. "I wonder how people steal art from a museum", she started. "With so many guards, and such big frames", she insisted. I immediately thought of Edvard Munch’s The Scream, which has been stolen twice in Norway. She vaguely remembered the piece, and kept saying: “I wonder what kinds of tools they use”. It was then when I remembered one of my husband's favorite movies, which shows a very interesting take on art theft.

―Have you seen The Crown Affair?

―The crown of hair? No, yuck.

―No! The Crown Affair― I repeated a little louder with a smile.

―Oh, what a relief! The crown of heir. No, I don’t think I have.

Bent over laughing and trying to repeat the movie’s name, I realized that we were not going to talk much about art that evening. We walked and talked, and even then a few pieces talked to us. We were almost moved to tears when we saw Linguist staff; a piece of art from Ghana that shows how people will be willing to help and support you, if you show good intentions. It was a nice stroll with a friend. Hopefully the art will be there next time. And hopefully we will give it a chance to talk more to us.