Title screen from the Murder at the Met mobile game
What do Madame X, a murder, and a mobile phone have in common? They are all part of Murder at the Met: An American Art Mystery, the first mobile detective game created by The Metropolitan Museum of Art in collaboration with Green Door Labs and TourSphere.
The year is 1899 and the beautiful Virginie Gautreau, aka Madame X, has been killed in the Museum during an exclusive evening gala—all fiction, of course. Fast-forward to the present, where modern-day sleuths like you are called upon to solve the crime. Your assignment? To deduce who killed her, with what weapon, and in which period room. Use your mobile phone to travel through the galleries, where the art has come to life and everyone has secrets to share!
The app launched on April 20 at a special Teen Programs event. Murder mastermind Alice W. Schwarz testified, "This case remained unsolved for too long, so we recruited the most agile young minds to dust off the files." Joining forces in investigative teams, high school students from the tristate area scoured the American Wing galleries in search of the perpetrator.
Roving reporter Katherine Abbey was on the scene: "In their finest nineteenth-century costumes, and equipped with detective gear, teens came out in droves to check alibis and crack the case."
Teens play the game on their smartphones. Photograph by Don Pollard.
Teens were encouraged to dress in nineteenth-century attire for the event. Photographs by Don Pollard.
Mustached participants pose in front of the Branch Bank of the United States in The Charles Engelhard Court. Photograph by Don Pollard.
Want to put your detective skills to the test? Hightail it to the American Wing and visit www.metmuseum.org/madamexmystery on your smartphone or tablet. When you solve the crime, mum's the word—you don't want to give it away, do you? And watch out for red herrings; there are three possible paths, each with a different storyline and culprit, so you can come back and play again. Unfortunately for Madame X, her fate is always the same.
Learn more about the mystery at hand in this short video (also available in Met Media):
Related Links
Murder at the Met: An American Wing Murder Mystery
Teen Blog
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Teens on Facebook
See the Museum's past blogs, which date back to 2007.
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