The Milwaukee Art Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg have put real Claude Monet paintings on the line for the Brewers-Rays World Series, agreeing that whichever city's team loses will send its museum's Monet on loan to the winner's hometown. If Milwaukee wins it all, the city will welcome Houses of Parliament: Effect of Fog, London, 1904 from St. Petersburg. If the Rays complete a comeback, Milwaukee will ship its own Monet, Waterloo Bridge, Sunlight Effect, down to Florida.
A Friendly Wager Between Two Museums
The two institutions confirmed they have agreed to a friendly wager tied directly to the Brewers-Rays matchup, according to the Milwaukee Art Museum. The museum on the losing side will send its painting on loan to the winning team's hometown, the museum said, a pact that effectively turns two Monet canvases into trophies for the series. As WFRV Local 5 reported, the arrangement amounts to a victory lap in the galleries for whichever city's baseball team comes out on top, a framing that has stuck as the series has unfolded.
Crucially, nobody is losing a painting for good. The wager is structured as a temporary loan, and ownership of each painting will remain with its museum regardless of which team wins, per the Milwaukee Art Museum. Loan and exhibition dates will be announced following the series, the museum said, meaning details on how long either painting would travel and when the public could see it have not yet been set.
The Directors Behind the Bet
The wager was set in motion by Kim Sajet, the Milwaukee Art Museum's Donna and Donald Baumgartner Director, who initiated the challenge, according to a statement from the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg. Per WFRV Local 5's report, Sajet said she became part of the Brew Crew after moving to Milwaukee and described the Brewers as the best team in baseball, saying she's backing them with one of the museum's beloved paintings. Sajet also invited her counterpart, Klaudio Rodriguez, to visit Milwaukee, the outlet reported.
Rodriguez, who serves as executive director and chief executive officer of the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, answered in kind. He said he believes Milwaukee's Monet would enjoy a Florida vacation and that his museum is backing the Rays, while also saying the museum is ready to welcome Milwaukee's painting to St. Petersburg, according to WFRV Local 5. The St. Petersburg museum noted that this is a first for the MFA, even as it described this kind of championship-tied art wager as a popular trend among institutions during big sporting moments.
Two Famous Canvases Already On Display
Waterloo Bridge, Sunlight Effect happens to be the only Monet in the Milwaukee Art Museum's collection and is a visitor favorite that was already on view when the bet was struck, according to ARTnews. WFRV Local 5 reported that the piece remains on view at the Milwaukee Art Museum for local visitors in the meantime. Down in Florida, the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg put Houses of Parliament: Effect of Fog, London on view in an upstairs gallery in support of the Rays while its regular collection gallery was closed for reinstallation, the museum said.
Smithsonian Magazine's coverage of the wager noted that both paintings were on view at their respective institutions as the series got underway, and that the Brewers held a 2-0 series lead heading into Game 3 in Tampa Bay. WFRV Local 5 separately reported that the Brewers had moved ahead 3-0 in the series and are pursuing the franchise's first World Series title.
Not the First Time Art Has Ridden on a Championship
This isn't the Milwaukee Art Museum's first time putting a painting on the line for a hometown team. Back in 2011, when the Green Bay Packers faced the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV, the museum entered a similar loan arrangement with Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum of Art, according to ARTnews. After the Steelers lost, the Carnegie Museum of Art's Pierre-Auguste Renoir painting Bathers With Crab traveled to Milwaukee for three months, the outlet reported.
Other museums have followed a similar playbook around football's biggest game. In 2023, the Philadelphia Museum of Art sent a painting by Thomas Eakins to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City after the Chiefs beat the Eagles in the Super Bowl, according to Smithsonian Magazine. When the Eagles won a rematch in 2025, Kansas City returned the favor, sending an Édouard Manet painting to Philadelphia, the magazine noted. For now, Milwaukee and St. Petersburg wait to see which city's walls will gain a new Monet once the World Series wraps up.
