The Denver Art Museum Can Barely Keep Up With Rabid Shoppers Buying Merch for Its Monet Blockbuster

Impressionist painter Claude Monet has turned out to be quite a
money-maker for the Denver Art Museum this holiday season. Ever
since “Claude Monet: The Truth of Nature”—an ambitious solo
exhibition of 120 paintings loaned from 80 different
collections—opened in October, truckloads of Monet merchandise have
been delivered to the museum’s docking bay to keep up with intense
visitor demand.

The artist’s pastel-hued paintings of light-speckled landscapes
appear on around 700 different types of products, including
watchbands, music boxes, coloring books, scarves, puzzles, wine
totes, postcards, and eyeglasses (the latter an interesting choice
since the painter suffered from cataracts and poor eyesight in his
later years). Bearded mini-Monet figurines are attached to
keychains that read: “Monet ensures you make a good impression on
everyone you meet.”

The museum’s retail department, staffed with 26 employees and
around 65 volunteers, has been placing around 30 orders a week to
keep their shelves flush with Monet wares, reports Denver-based
publication, Westword. When the orders arrive, they work
overtime to prepare these goods for sale.

And of course visitors, after making their way through the
popular show’s two floors, must exit through the Monet-themed gift
shop at the end of their timestamped entries. The last three
sections leading up to the prismatic retail finale are devoted to
the artist’s paintings from his adopted hometown of Giverny, with
its Japanese bridges and ponds filled with water lilies.

The exhibition, billed as the most comprehensive U.S. show of
Monet paintings in over two decades, is a collaboration between the
Denver museum and Germany’s Museum Barberini (where it will travel
in a slightly different version next spring). For now, it’s taken
over Denver. The museum advertises hotel packages that include
skip-the-line tickets (even when the show is sold out during your
preferred time slot), and the audio guide includes music especially
recorded by the Denver Philharmonic Orchestra.

The museum’s retail team may not have known that it would so
successfully monetize Monet when it curated the wares for this
show. Despite what some may feel is a disconnect between what was
once avant-garde art and keychains of questionable taste, purchases
of art-themed puzzles and other museum shop merchandise go right
back towards supporting programming and collections at the museum.
Who knows what blockbuster the Denver Art Museum might be able to
host in the years to come, with all the rain Mr. Monet is making
this season.

The post The Denver Art Museum Can Barely Keep Up With Rabid
Shoppers Buying Merch for Its Monet Blockbuster appeared first
on artnet News.