Museum Acquires 'Historically Significant' Puppet, Discovers It's Just a Mitten With Googly Eyes

The Smithsonian National Museum of American History has launched an internal acquisition review after paying $12,000 at auction for what was described as 'a rare example of Appalachian folk puppetry, circa 1890' that a subsequent conservation assessment identified as 'a wool mitten, probably from the 1990s, with two googly eyes and a piece of red yarn glued to it.' 'The auction catalog described it as a "proto-puppet of the American folk tradition, handcrafted in the Appalachian region, demonstrating vernacular performance practices predating commercial puppet manufacture,"' said acquisitions curator Dr. Linda Textile. 'The provenance paperwork traced it to an estate in rural Virginia. It was photographed on a velvet display stand. It looked legitimate.' Conservator Maria Thread examined the artifact upon its arrival and delivered her assessment within four minutes. 'The wool is machine-knit, consistent with late 20th-century manufacture,' Thread said. 'The googly eyes are plastic, commercially produced, and still have a price sticker on the back reading "Michaels — $1.99." The yarn mouth is attached with Elmer's glue. This is a craft project.' Dr. Textile has contacted the auction house, which maintains that the item was 'sold as described' and that 'the folk tradition encompasses many forms of creative expression, including the application of googly eyes to knitwear.' The museum has placed the mitten in a storage facility pending the review's completion. A junior curator has suggested displaying it honestly as 'a cautionary tale about provenance research,' but this proposal has been rejected as 'too embarrassing.' The mitten has been assigned an accession number, because 'once something enters the Smithsonian's collection, it stays in the Smithsonian's collection, even if it's a mitten.'