Sunday Morning

The Art Of Shopping

December 6, 2007 / 5:12 PM EST / CBS

From the day it opened in 1870, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has understood the art of shopping.

There are 13 shops inside the Met in New York City, and 39 more all over the world.

"We donate approximately $74 million dollars in annual operating income to the museum," Valerie Troyansky, who manages product development for the Met, told Sunday Morning correspondent Martha Teichner.

Here's a novel notion; you can buy actual, original art, like your very own Picasso.

So if you were just blown away by the Met's exhibition of Indian art, Troyansky says "during the Mughal period, the artists believed that not only should something be beautiful for somebody to see, but your body should also have that beauty worn against the skin."

All you need is a maharajah's money: One necklace, for example, costs $38,750.

In general, the stuff in a museum shop is dictated by what's in the museum. Bonnie MacKay is director of creative marketing and merchandising at New York's Museum of Modern Art.

"The guiding principle is innovation, basically - innovation of design and as a color," she said.

The bestseller in the whole place is the set of ghost salt and pepper shakers who are hugging.

"I would say we've sold probably about 10,000 a year," MacKay said.

Even New York's Museum of Sex has a shop bathed in dirty bookstore blue light, and no, not everything is x-rated, at least not quite. Try furry handcuffs, books about relationships or even "dirty" wrapping paper.

If adults-only doesn't appeal to you, in Chicago, Dean Reynolds found something for the kid in all of us, at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry.

Peter Papp, the museum store director, says the $150 light sabers are big sellers, and of course he sees the store's mission as strictly educational - especially with the stuffed germs.

"We have the kissing disease, we have the salmonella, which of course is a wonderful item, and this is fun, this is the common cold," Papp said. "One of these small germs will run $7.99. A lot of the gifts that we have make people think, 'That's the whole idea of coming to the museum.'"

At Chicago's Field Museum, they're also big on stuffed creatures, just on a different scale. Jeri Webb, who runs the museum's stores, finds that - for only $1,000 - a giant stuffed polar bear is an extremely useful purchase.

"Think about the power position of having this behind your desk," Webb said. "Nobody's gonna mess with you if you have this as your protector."

There's also a handy Egyptian Sarcophogus, which doubles as a CD case. But for the really special gift, there's the museum's signature piece: for a mere $34,000, you can own a one-third scale bronze replica of the skull of the museum's most famous exhibit, a Tyrannosaurus Rex fondly named Sue.

But you're looking for something old? Something really different? Bill Whitaker at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles has something for you. The big seller there is tar pit goo.

At the Tar Pit's Page Museum, Trino Marquez sells Ice Age gifts for all ages, from $300 fossil replicas, to the tar, simulating the real stuff that's been bubbling up for tens of thousands of years. A bargain at five bucks a bottle.

If you're looking for old, but not that old, how about a little trinket from an ancient civilization? At the Getty Villa, a Greek vase handmade the way the ancients did sells for $525. Murano glass inspired by the Romans costs up to $300.

But "the classics" can mean something different in Southern California: classic cars. At the Petersen Automotive Museum this hand-made model of a 1931 Alfa Romeo sells for about $5,000. A model of a car that left all the others in the dust at the 1952 Indianapolis 500, a racy $150.

The Museum of Contemporary Art caused a bit of a dust up with its "Copyright Murakami" exhibit. It put the Louis Vuitton gift shop right in the middle, with Murakami-designed handbags going for up to $965. Marc Jacobs is the creative director for Louis Vuitton.

"The purchasing of the product is an art form because what's being sold is an art form, and then I guess watching that transaction would qualify as some kind of performance art," he said.

No one has performed this transaction just yet. This trunk, with 33 alligator trimmed bags inside, retails for just $5,000.

But even an escape from materialism will cost you money. The Tibetan singing bowl costs $180 at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City, which is devoted to Himalayan art. Many of the objects in the shop are made by Tibetans living in Nepal.

If you're interested in baby-boomer executive toys, there's the Buddha Board $30 with the tray and brush included.

"When you draw something, it'll show very clearly and after some time, it withers away very slowly," store manager Sherab Norpa said. "Somehow, this is teaching us impermanence. Nothing is permanent on this Earth."

At the Museum of Modern Art of Fort Worth, Mary Beth Ebert's store boasts the world's fanciest garlic press.

Some shops you just know what you're going to get: At the Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, you get cowgirl stuff.

In Houston, at the Museum of Natural Science, huge geodes - rock on the outside, clusters of semiprecious gemstones on the inside. One particularly clusterish one is $45,000.

In Atlanta, the Kangaroo Conservation Center isn't exactly a museum, but it's got a shop in it selling ... kangaroos.

You can't buy an airplane at the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson, but you can buy genuine airplane parts. For $28.95, you or that special someone can be the proud owner of your very own b-52 fuel gauge!

Last but not least, back at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, a Sun Pendent ($65) is a replica of one that was made in Germany in the 16th century, part of a suit of armor for a horse.

Perfect art for a Sunday Morning!

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