Superbowl

Super Bowl XLIV may be complete, but excitement over The Saints' win isn't dimming anytime soon. That's especially true if you've got a Who Dat chandelier hanging in your home! In a fit of "Geaux Saints" spirit last week, New Orleans-based lighting designer Julie Neill cooked up these two chandeliers in honor of her beloved Saints team. Bearing the boys' signature black and gold colors, with dangling Mardi Gras beads and fleur-de-lys, she says, "They were meant to embody the spirit of New Orleans, which is beauty with a sense of fun, and some Mardi Gras thrown in, too!"Most sports-inspired décor or "memorabilia" tends to be tacky, but Neill's chandeliers are quite sophisticated, and a great compromise for a "man cave" that meets a lady's standards, too. In fact, Julie tells me that one customer ordered one for his TV room where he and his friends watch all the Saints games "religiously." Of course, it works in the Saints favor that their logo bears a symbol as pretty as the fleur-de-lys. I'd love to have the black chandelier even if I weren't a Saints fan — how glam! If you're interested in ordering one, contact Julie here. To see some other "Who Dat" inspired artwork, check out this post.

Last week, art blogger Tyler Green tried to arrange a Super Bowl art loan bet between the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the New Orleans Museum of Art via Twitter. The museum directors stepped up pretty quickly and wagered to loan their competitors a beloved art work for a three-month period, if their city's respective football team lost the Super Bowl. After some very competitive back and forth banter via Twitter and emails concerning which pieces would be loaned, the two arrived at a deal: if the Saints win (Geaux Saints!), the IMA will loan The Fifth Plague of Egypt (1800, left) by Joseph Turner to the NOMA for three months, and if the Colts win, NOMA will loan Ideal View of Tivoli (1644, right) by Claude Lorrain to IMA. Who knew landscape paintings could be so cutthroat?