Mysteries of the Art World

“The use of traveling is to regulate imagination
by reality, and instead of thinking how things
may be, to see them as they are.”
– Samuel Johnson

---

_{Pixabay; CC0 Creative Commons Free for commercial use No attribution required}

---

“Not all those who wander are lost.” – J. R. R. Tolkien

---

The Wandering Chairs   
the infamous masterpiece 
created by Turisan
for those of you unaware 
whose mysterious traveling was
(exhibit circa le début du XXe siècle)
la crème des Art Nouveau
shown at the finest galleries
two months in London
three weeks in New York
the Louvre that strange summer 
was still talked about in Milan

Displayed as "A Cord of Chairs"
in every museum's Great Hall
nine rows of one hundred eleven
except for the day when one went missing
number five hundred ninety six
they were numbered you see
part of a set 

No one really knew 
when it went astray until 
a Japanese tourist spotted it in Brazil
sunning itself on a beach
the wood spider stain had darkened
taken on a slightly reddish hue
but there was no mistaking 
the unique structure of its 
haphazard joinings
or the churlish angle of 
fine knotted grain

Various theories emerged 
as to how the lone chair got there
pranksters from a rival museum in Cairo
jealous of the attention
until Chair three hundred forty one
found itself on a sightseeing bus – 
double decker tour in Brussels

_{Pixabay; CC0 Creative Commons Free for commercial use No attribution required}

Soon after Chair one hundred 
eighty nine was found adrift 
on a schooner just off of Maui;
Security was tightened and
the Detectives were called in -
close circuit cameras were scanned
more than the exhibit itself

(Ironically enough, Elvis Costello's hit single, 
"Watching the Detectives", made a viral comeback 
on You Tube, with video footage of museum goers 
watching Security watch The Chairs)

Conspiracy theories rebounded some with Turisan as 
master mind of the greatest promo plot of the Art world
but nothing was proven

One day a young lad of nine 
snuck in through the barriers, sat in 
Chair nine oh nine on the far end
He described it later as thus;
"one minute I was sitting in 
a chair and I thought to meself 
how my Great Auntie Estel might like
to sit in a chair quite like this one 
it was just that comfortable, and before 
I knew it I was sitting on that Chair 
on her front stoop in Little Mucking"

Soon after this the exhibit was 
   disassembled
however it has been reported that
several Chairs are still unaccounted for;
some experts place the number at 
up to a third of the collection
and the mystery remains as to where
the known Chairs have been placed

Random Chair sightings are as common as UFO's
MI5 and the SSA have been asked to intercede
it is all extremely hush hush however
this reporter has inside knowledge that
_,,,.>................................................
z@c%h7(kl^wf#z..  ,,<!~xm{/+jn 
prison outside of ch111100101<,,
_ ,,,~.>.......... incinera>!0-...............
..........................................................
......................