German Museum Lets You Talk to van Gogh's Regrown Ear
Science has finally done something worthwhile: A museum in Germany has put Vincent van Gogh's regrown ear on display so visitors can ask it questions through a microphone.
Artist Diemut Strebe made the ear at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital using living cells from Lieuwe van Gogh, the great-great-grandson of Vincent's brother Theo. She then used a 3D printer to shape the cells into an ear modeled on the one van Gogh famously cut off his head in 1888.
"I use science basically like a type of brush, like Vincent used paint," Strebe told the Associated Press.
Strebe had plans to use van Gogh's actual DNA but those were thwarted when genetic material lifted from one of his letters turned out to belong to someone else. "The postman messed it up," Strebe said.
If you'd like to ask van Gogh's regrown ear a question but can't make it to Germany by July 6, good news: Strebe wants to bring the appendage to New York next.
