The Thousands

The other day while using the library as a video store a librarian whispered over the counter and told me about a new book that had just arrived that exhibits the contents of 5 of the suitcases that belonged to Frida Kahlo, that have been kept in storage for forty years.

The woman behind the operation is Barbara Levine, art director and curator and all round Ms Collector of Treasures. Alongside her string of projects, she also gets a kick out of collecting other peoples personal belongings. Well, this book shows that she hit the jackpot.

Inside the suitcases are unsent letters to Diego Rivera, calling him a cad and a swine, next to eleven stuffed hummingbirds and medical illustrations of dissections and amputations. No wonder the librarian whispered it to me; it’s a treasure of unknown hobbies of Kahlo that she kept hiding from the public eye. Needless to say, I didn’t get any DVDs out.