12.6.08

F I R S TP R E V786NEXTLAST

Art and Death at the Legion of Honor
The Sun, a 13-foot high glass sculpture by artist Dale Chihuly welcomes visitors into the courtyard of the Legion of Honor, perhaps the most beautiful museum in San Francisco. The museum houses an impressive collection of ancient and European art including Rodin's Thinker which shares the museum's Court of Honor with the Chihuly sculpture.

However, not all discoveries at the Legion of Honor are as pleasant. In 1993, while doing construction at the museum, workers dug up around 300 skeletons. These skeletons appear to be from a pauper's graveyard that dates back to the mid-1800s. While all cemeteries were ordered to be relocated from San Francisco in 1900, it appears this graveyard was either forgotten or ignored. Expert estimates have put the number of bodies thought to be on the museum's grounds at 11,000.
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