Diana Rodriguez/Contributing Writer
Troublemaker and lifetime collector Micky Wolfson celebrated his 80th birthday this year by supplying 100 one-of-a-kind objects to a new exhibit at The Wolfsonian-FIU.
The exhibit “A Universe of Things: Micky Wolfson Collects” takes over the sixth floor of the museum on Washington Avenue in Miami Beach.
There’s a wall displaying old-fashioned keys Wolfson collected from his stays at hotels around the world, including Egypt’s InterContinental Cairo Semiramis, Japan’s Fujiya Hotel and The Excelsior Hotel in Manhattan.
Another section of the exhibit is dedicated to items that journalize Nazi expansion and the history of propaganda.
The word “propaganda” was coined in the 1600s by the Roman Catholic Church to describe the distribution of information.
Hitler’s reign was inspired by Catholicism’s views on loyalty and “devotion.”
Wolfson collected one item from the anti-Semetic movement that chronicled the idea of loyalty that all true-blooded Germans were required to represent.
The Cross of Honour of the German Mother, or Mutterkreuz, was given by the state to German women who birthed and raised at least four children, signifying the reicht’s desire of expanding the “true” Aryan race.
The museum displays a golden cross, the highest honor that was awarded to mothers with eight or more children.
Other examples of propaganda found in the exhibit include the “Tijuana Bibles,” which are sexually explicit comic books that were illegally distributed in the 1940s.
“Heroes and Villains” is an area of the exhibit that displays busts of iconic and sometimes political figures from the ‘40s.
There’s a bronze terracotta of Benito Mussolini that depicts the intimidating “all-seeing” nature of his role as Prime Minister of fascist Italy.
An iron and bronze Haile Selassie stands to honor the last emperor of Ethiopia’s 2,000-year-old monarchy and the enduring figure of African resistance to foreign powers.
Even Wolfson himself is found in cast aluminum.
The section is designed for onlookers to make their own connections throughout history and question the subjectiveness of what really makes heroes “heroic.”
“A Universe of Things: Micky Wolfson Collects” is an ongoing exhibit that was revealed on Nov. 15.
Tickets to the museum are free for students, faculty and staff of the State University System of Florida, $12 for adults, $8 for seniors, students with ID and children aged six to 18, and free for children under six.
This article has been amended from its original publishing.
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