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Evil and wickedness are hard to witness, and people since the dawn of time have devised ways to explain why bad things happen. Though it’s just the way of the world, many are convinced that things aren’t just randomly bad; they’re cursed!
Others have even spent their lives trying to make cursed things or protect themselves from things they “know” are cursed. Many such objects are being held in the new Toledo Museum of Art exhibit Cursed! The Power of Magic in the Ancient World.
Safe behind glass
First, an important point should be made: you are not at risk of being cursed by visiting this exhibit. “Fortunately, I don’t seem to have suffered any ill effects,” said Jeffrey Spier, guest curator for the exhibition and former senior curator of the Getty Villa Museum, who put Cursed! together; so if anyone would get cursed by the exhibit, he certainly would. “I don’t think the objects harm the people handing them, unless they are the intended subject of a curse!”
The very evil but very nice exhibit is being held in the Glass Pavilion on the TMA campus, across from the main museum building. It’s at the back of the pavilion, completely shrouded from the outside with black fabric, and has a ticket booth stationed at the front almost like a guard post. Even before entering you can tell that you’re about to see things you shouldn’t, adding to the mystique of Cursed!…