Antique

Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Matt Murray (30) defends against San Jose Sharks' Joe Thornton (19) during the second period of Game 4 of the NHL Stanley Cup final on Monday in San Jose, Calif.

Maybe art's fair in love and war.

While the San Jose Sharks and the Pittsburgh Penguins compete in the Stanley Cup Finals this week, museums from each city are wagering pieces from their collection that their hockey team will come out on top.

It all started on May 27, when the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh challenged the San Jose Museum of Art to a friendly bet on Twitter.

Hey @sjmusart, how about a friendly little wager over this Lord Stanley thing that's about to go down?
— CMOA (@cmoa) May 27, 2016

If the Sharks win, the CMOA will loan "Measurement: Plant (Palm)," a 1969 conceptual work by Pittsburgh-born artist Mel Bochner. If the Penguins win, SJMA will have to relinquish "Mom Posing by Green Wall and Dad Watching T.V.," a 1984 photograph from the "Pictures from Home" series by California artist Larry Sultan.

#museumcup stakes are set! @penguins / @SanJoseSharks - SF Bay's Larry Sultan / #Pgh Mel Bochner @sjmusart pic.twitter.com/ok84PtZDDy
— CMOA (@cmoa) June 5, 2016

It's a bit of an uneven playing field: not only does the CMOA's collection of 30,000 pieces far exceed the SJMA's 2,500, but the Penguins are currently leading the Sharks 3-1 in the series.

This is just the latest artistic fun around a sports event. The Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots inspired a similar bet during the 2015 Super Bowl, wagering a pair of seascape paintings. When the Patriots took home the Vince Lombardi Trophy, the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Mass., took home the 1870 Albert Bierstadt painting "Puget Sound on the Pacific Coast," which it won for three months from the Seattle Art Museum.


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