The Donkey at the DIA

There are so many incredible treasures in our Detroit Institute of Arts that habitual visits are a necessity to be always discovering new ones. We bet many visitors have passed by this bronze donkey on the second floor without giving it much of a thought, but he is the one piece of art that everyone is invited to touch. And it is probably precisely this reason that we love him so much.  Look how worn he is--kind of like the velveteen rabbit whose fur was rubbed off from loving it too much. Created by German artist, Renee Sintenis, in 1927, it is actually a good example of how masterpieces slowly erode under human hands.