‘Until recently, museums and auction houses were (and were perceived to be) opposite sorts of institutions, their values so different as to preclude cross-fertilization. But in the past decade or so the wall between museums and auction houses has become porous. The auction houses have been reaching out to the rarefied world of museums. And far from being loath to put a price tag on their treasures, museums nowadays can hardly wait to do so’, writes Eric Gibson in The Wall Street Journal (August 17, 2007)

A new Web game developed by a museum group encourages children to single out an exotic artifact — a stone sculpture of a Chinese sea monster, a decorated shield from the Solomon Islands, an African mask or a Hopi kachina doll — and then search for its geographic origin, gaining information about the object along the way.

In this free animated game, called Room of Wonders and meant for ages 6 to 12, intrepid young explorers go by car, boat, plane, balloon or camel as they seek out the antique while the game responds, orally and visually, by releasing amusing bits of information. (If you fail to find the object, you are returned to the start.)

Room of Wonders was developed under the auspices of the French Regional and American Museum Exchange, known as Frame, a coalition of 23 museums that exchange works of art, personnel, technology and resources. The game, stocked with objects from these museums, is at framemuseums.org.

Read full article (New York Times, August 17, 2007)

Click here to launch the game