On Sunday (9 February), the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles will face off in the 59th Super Bowl, the championship match for the NFL, the top professional American football league. More than 100 million television viewers are set to tune in, and in-person attendees in New Orleans will include superstar Taylor Swift and US president Donald Trump. And fans of art have a reason to keep an eye on the score too: the outcome will determine the loan of a work from the leading art museum in the losing city to the top art institution in the winning city.
This year’s Super Bowl art loan wager—known colloquially as Museum Bowl—once again pits the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City against the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA). The institutions last faced off in 2023, when their teams both competed in the Super Bowl. That year the Chiefs won, and so the PMA sent one of its treasures, the Thomas Eakins painting Sailing (around 1875), to the Nelson-Atkins. This time around, both institutions are offering up a work by Édouard Manet.
“Our friends in Philadelphia so enjoyed their last visit to the Nelson-Atkins two years ago that we expect to see them again this year, as we are confident our team will once again be victorious,” Julián Zugazagoitia, the director and chief executive of the Nelson-Atkins, said in a statement.
Not one to be out-boasted, Sasha Suda, the director and chief executive of the PMA, said: “I cannot wait to host our friends and colleagues at the Nelson-Atkins here in Philadelphia.” She added: “We will offer a proper Philly welcome as the city celebrates our Eagles’ win on the Rocky Steps.”
Édouard Manet, The Croquet Party, 1871. Gift of Henry W. and Marion H. Bloch Courtesy the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri
The Nelson-Atkins is wagering a loan of Manet's sporty seaside scene The Croquet Party (1871), which he painted after visiting the popular coastal destination of Boulogne-sur-Mer.
"Though Manet never exhibited with the Impressionists, The Croquet Party reflects their techniques through its loose, gestural brushwork, rapid execution and atmospheric effects,” Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, the Nelson-Atkins's senior curator of European arts, said in a statement. “The artist’s vibrant, abstracted handling of paint is central to the picture’s modernity."
The PMA is wagering another waterfront image by Manet from the same era and depicting the same region, The Folkestone Boat, Boulogne (around 1868-1872).
Édouard Manet, The Folkestone Boat, Boulogne, around 1868-72 Courtesy the Philadelphia Museum of Art
Sports betting sites appear somewhat split regarding the outcome of this year's Super Bowl, though many give a razor-thin edge to Kansas City. The Chiefs have the opportunity to become the first team ever to win three Super Bowls in a row, having defeated the San Francisco 49ers in 2024. However, due to California laws banning certain types of gambling, last year’s wager did not involve the loan of a work. Instead, following the 49ers’ defeat, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's eatery found itself serving Kansas City barbecue (the city claims to be the “world capital of barbecue”).