Wes Anderson presents box of 'treasures' from Viennese vaults

The “treasure chamber” at Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum takes on a new meaning thanks to an exhibition curated by American filmmaker Wes Anderson and his partner, illustrator and author Juman Malouf. The pair were given free rein to assemble pieces from the vast collections and archives of the museum, as well as some of its partner institutions, in order to put together the six-month show, entitled “Spitzmaus Mummy in a Coffin and Other Treasures”. The opening of the exhibition on Monday evening was attended by some of Anderson’s perennial collaborators such as actors Jason Schwartzman and Tilda Swinton. Tongue firmly in cheek, 49-year-old Anderson gave a short speech describing the process of putting the exhibition together with Malouf, 43, as “the culmination of several years of patient, frustrating negotiation, bitter, angry debate, sometimes completely irrational confrontation and often Machiavellian duplicity and deception.”