London museum said planning exhibit with farting ‘David’ statue
Victoria & Albert Museum and ‘The Beano’ reportedly working to attract kids with comic take on famous art, including Michelangelo sculpture breaking wind
According to a leaked memo, London’s Victoria & Albert Museum is planning to let a children’s comic book team run an exhibition there next summer, which will include Michelangelo’s “David” statue making farting noises as people walk past.
The exhibition, being billed as a takeover of the museum by “The Beano,” aims to encourage children to visit the museum, UK media reported. One critic told the Daily Mail the idea was “crass and pathetic.”
“The Beano,” known for its anarchic humor and puerile comedy, has been published weekly since 1938. Its most famous character is Dennis the Menace, the archetypal badly behaved schoolboy.
The museum’s replica of “David” is to be fitted with a speaker that will cause the sculpture to break wind.
Other plans for the museum include a display of slingshots — famously used by Dennis the Menace — and covering one of the museum’s most valuable objects, Leonardo da Vinci’s notebook, with vinyl comic book signs.
“We are working with The Beano creative team to set the route and choose the locations they would like to use,” V&A festival manager Sophie Reynolds wrote in the memo. “They are very keen to include the cast of David and the notebook of Leonardo da Vinci.”
The exhibit is reportedly scheduled for August 2018. It is not known whether “The Beano” publisher DC Thomson is paying for the event.
