Meet Riley, the Puppy Training to Sniff Out Bugs in Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts
The Weimaraner will inspect incoming artwork for beetles, moths and other critters that can damage museum collections
By Jason Daley
smithsonian.com
January 11, 2018
The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston has made some pretty incredible acquisitions recently. In the last year alone, the museum received an important collection of 113 Dutch paintings. It also expanded its collection of 2oth-century painters. But as Steve Annear at The Boston Globe reports, the museum’s latest addition, Riley, a Weimaraner puppy who will help the museum search for insects and pests that might harm artworks, is the story that’s currently fetching the most attention.
Bugs in a museum are no small problem. Moths can munch on delicate textiles like wool, silk and cotton, and beetles can burrow into wooden objects. That’s not to mention the horrors that silverfish can inflict on books. To get an idea of how much damage bugs can inflict on institutions, consider the outbreak of “clothes moths†that infested just about every museum in Great Britain.
Read more:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/boston-museum-training-puppy-sniff-out-art-chewing-insects-180967804/#636RZaRURrkXy05v.99
