This has got to be one of the coolest Superbowl bets in the history of Superbowl bets.

Two art museum directors, Maxwell L. Anderson of Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA) and E. John Bullard of New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA), started a betting war online as a response to art blogger (Modern Art Notes) Tyler Green's tweet:

@tylergreendc: Would love to see @IMAmuseum and @NOMA1910 make a Super Bowl bet. Like a painting-loan-to-the-winning city,"

The directors bit, the stakes grew and the trash talking commenced over the next day or so. Anderson offered up a Calame to NOMA and added, "We're already spackling the wall where the NOMA loan will hang."

Bullard countered with a Renoir saying: "Max Anderson must not really believe the Colts can beat the Saints in the Super Bowl. Let's up the ante. The New Orleans Museum of Art will bet the three-month loan of its Renoir painting, Seamstress at Window, circa 1908, which is currently in the big Renoir exhibition in Paris. What will Max wager of equal importance? Go Saints!"

It goes on an on.  You can catch a full run down on Modern Art Notes.

In the end the bet was sealed with "The Fifth Plague of Egypt" by J.M.W. Turner from IMA (pictured above) and "Ideal View of Tivoli" by Claude Lorrain from NOMA (pictured below).

Best of luck to both museums and congratulations on getting the arts involved in the Superbowl.  In my eyes, it's a win/win!