Museums are competing to find out who’s got the best bum and it’s a cheeky delight

It’s always a pleasure when museums start playing a friendly (but intensely competitive) game of oneupmanship on Twitter.

And today’s theme is …

IT’S TIME FOR #CURATORBATTLE!💥

Today’s theme is #BestMuseumBum!

This cracking Roman marble statuette depicts an athlete at the peak of fitness! It may have decorated the town house of one of Eboracum’s wealthier residents. Has someone taken a bite out of this 🍑?

BEAT THAT!💥 pic.twitter.com/N3A6KYz339

— Yorkshire Museum (@YorkshireMuseum) June 26, 2020

BUMFIGHT!

1.

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

2.

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

3.

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

4.

💥 #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

5.

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

6.

"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

7.

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

8.

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

9.

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

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

10.

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

11.

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

12.

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

13.

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

14.

This bum? It’s not just any bum. This is the behind of the Egyptian god of fertility, Min, dating back to c. 3300 BC – a 5,000 year old bum. #CURATORBATTLE Photo courtesy of the brilliant @museumbums pic.twitter.com/DMWAhu1FbT

— Ashmolean Museum (@AshmoleanMuseum) June 26, 2020

15.

How about the stunning 'Chrysis' car mascot, designed by Rene Jules Lalique, 1931.

What a glass. #bestmuseumbum #curatorbattle pic.twitter.com/8aluSbh9Oa

— Beaulieu_Hants (@Beaulieu_Hants) June 26, 2020

16.

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

17.

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

18.

‘Best Bum 2 for 1! And larger than life. Lady Godiva on Horseback by John Thomas 1861.’ #BestMuseumBum #curatorbattle pic.twitter.com/aaYLGEMUuO

— Maidstone Museum (@MaidstoneMuseum) June 26, 2020

19.

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

READ MORE

Museums are trolling each other with their best ducks and it’s quacking brilliant

Source @YorkshireMuseum