The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Human Head Cake Box Murder

Human Head Cake Box Murder

Date:: ca. 1940
Medium:: Gelatin silver print
Dimensions:: 33.6 x 26.9 cm (13 1/4 x 10 9/16 in.)
Classification:: Photographs
Credit Line:: Ford Motor Company Collection, Gift of Ford Motor Company and John C. Waddell, 1987
Accession Number:: 1987.1100.92
Rights and Reproduction:: © Weegee / International Center of Photography.

This artwork is not on display

Description

It is hard to decide which of the several mysteries contained in this macabre photograph is the most bizarre: the murder to which the title alludes, the headless bodies standing flat-footedly around a bodyless head, the "scriptboy" who enters at upper left, how the police photographer can be both rooted to the spot and levitating above it, why he wears his hat as he works, or where Weegee is standing.
Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Inscription: Inscribed in red pencil on print, recto UL, LL, in margin of print: [crop marks]; inscribed on print, verso C: "Human Head // Cake Box Murder"; inscribed on print, verso CL [on slant]: "Trend [underlined]"; stamped and inscribed on print, verso LR: "EYE MAGAZINE // PHOTO NO #178 // STORY Murder // ISSUE Sept. // PAGE 60";
Provenance

[Daniel Wolf, New York]; John C. Waddell, New York (February 23, 1980)
See also
Who
Weegee (92)
What
Photographs (32,603)

Gelatin silver prints (8,688)
Where
North and Central America (83,032)

United States (79,749)
When
A.D. 1900-present (80,348)
In the Museum
Photographs (29,452)
Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History
The United States and Canada, 1900 A.D.–present
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