The Lives They Lived, part II

Today is the last day that artist Ann Hamilton's Palimpsest is on view at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in DC. And that means that the 20 or so Helix aspersa snails included in the installation or currently eating their last bites of cabbage. For some reason the US Dept. of Agriculture requires the museum to destroy the snails, considered a pest, when the exhibition closes-- so the snails will be autoclaved. However, according to a museum conservator quoted in the Washington Post, the snails did get Christmas stockings. . . . Talk about a slow news day . . . .