by Sam Hearn
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41
Baker Street A..
https://www.bakerstreetbloggers.blogsplodge.com/2016/10/baker-street-ac
Museum Visit
Tuesday 4th
OK, Baker Street Blog readers! We have our
first announcement! As you all know, our
class history topic this year is the Victorians,
and to start things off in style there is going
to be a class outing to the British Arts &
Antiquities Museum (B&A). You’ll need
to remember to bring your worksheets,
notebooks, pencil cases and sense of
Victorian adventure! I can’t wait!
1 Comment
Baker Street Academy Blog
Monday 3rd
Cool news! The school news team love my
idea for a Baker Street Academy Blog. I’m
going to have a go at writing some funny
stories and comics for it – there’s so much
going on it’s given me plenty of ideas...
0 Comments
Ms DeRossi: Thanks, John! Mr Gapp and I are
very much looking forward to the trip. We’ll be
spending the morning doing some research on
the Victorian period and looking at the many
artefacts on display at the museum, so you
should all get some good ideas for your class
projects. And if there’s time we’ll try to fit in a
special surprise exhibit in the afternoon too!
3 hours ago
OK, class, gather round.
Make sure you all stick
together now. Mr Gapp, do
you want to do a quick
headcount?
Sure thing, Ms
DeRossi. Thumbs up - all
present and accounted
for! OK, gang, let’s
go upstairs.
This is
soooo cool!
4
ADVENTURE AT
THE MUSEUM
43
I wanna see the
25 Treasures
exhibition!
Yeah,
me too!
I want to
see all the old
armour and
stuff.
I want to see
the old clothes
and costumes!
Need a new
outfit, do you?
Ha ha!
I wanna
see the big
statues!
Oh! Mi scusi –
ahem! Excuse
me, madam. I’m
terribly sorry.
Interesting, isn’t
it, Watson?
Do we really have to
go and look at all the
Victorian stuff?
OK, OK. Calm down,
everybody. We’re
going to see as much
as we can! We’ve got
all day and it’s going
to be great.
BORING!
bump!
Sherlock! Where’ve you been?
I thought you’d disappeared.
I’ve been doing a spot of people
watching, John. A fascinating hobby,
don’t you think? And sometimes
most enlightening…
Well, I’m not exactly sure what Sherlock was
finding so interesting, but – wow! The museum
is amazing. And massive! There’s stuff from all
over the world: Ancient Rome, China, the Middle
East and Ancient Greece too. There are gold
Buddhas and trinkets and treasures and jewels
and rooms full of paintings and – oh man, I’m
talking about GIANT paintings. There’s even
great big bits of old buildings… It’s incredible!
And all of this before we even started to
look at things for our school project. I could
probably come here every week and still not get
through it all.
Although you can’t always
please everybody…
“Oh my god. This is
SO
boring!” complained Martha after
about five minutes. “Who wants
to look at a load of old teapots
all day? If it’s not that, it’s
portraits of posh ladies, stuck-
up gents and fancy dogs...
Ooh, hang on a minute… Now
that’s more like it!”
48
Finally we reached the Victorian display. The
Victorians had some cool stuff all right, even
if it was a bit strange. It’s like they had a
little gadget for everything they could think
of: combs and brushes and mirrors, and all
sorts of weird clips and fasteners, buttons
and brooches and silly suspenders on your
clothes.
There was plenty of interesting stuff for
our school projects – lots about the British
Empire and how far it stretched across the
world, and lots of Victorian inventions and
buildings. We even got to try on some clothes.
NICK-NACKS & MUGSHOTS
Hey, these look a
bit like some of the
things we found in
your house, Martha.
Oops! This one’s
a bit big…
Nice, John. You look very
Victorian. All you need now
is a moustache! Haha!
Yeah, they’ve got
more of those funny
hats and a cape too.
Martha had found a display cabinet full of
old-fashioned cameras. That’s another thing
the Victorians invented. “They took a lot of
photos, didn’t they?” she said, as she got
out her phone and held it up, ready to snap
a picture.
“Yes. No selfies though, Martha!” said
Sherlock from across the room. He was
staring up at a huge glass cabinet filled with
pictures of some scary, grizzled-looking
people. “Come and look at these.”
Hey, look at these
nifty old cameras!
I think we were pretty happy to leave the Victorians
behind after that!
Very funny, Sherlock. Who are this
lot then?
They’re criminals. Victorian
London’s most vicious and vile.
Deadly to the very last.
Well, that’s one more strange thing
about the Victorians. All these photos
were taken as memento mori
Memento mori. It means
they were dead.
They look horrible!
What’s wrong with their
faces?
M-Minty what-what?
What?! Eurgh!
X
51
The morning sped by and soon it was time for
our surprise – talk about saving the best till
last! Ms DeRossi and Mr Gapp handed out maps
for the 25 Treasures exhibition. Man, it was
so cool! It was like a massive treasure hunt
of all the most unusual and special objects in
the museum. We went round trying to see who
could spot them first. I was with Sherlock and
Martha, Darren was with Martin and Henry, Bart
was with Em and Nisha and a few others were
off with Mr Gapp. James Moriarty was with his
cronies, Seb and Charlie. As usual it didn’t take
them long to start spoiling the atmosphere…
TREASURE HUNT
Hey, look – there’s
Sorry, Watson.
I didn’t recognize
you without your
lead!
Hahaha
52
But I wasn’t going to let them bother me – there
was just so much to see.
There was an amazing room
with humungous marble
statues, and what looked
like a golden doorway to a
magical land.
54
An incredible notebook belonging to
Leonardo da Vinci, and an original book
of Shakespeare’s plays.
THE
Alpine
Star…
A ginormous four-poster bed and what looked
like a huge flying carpet, and a man-eating
tiger! Not to mention the most famous diamond
known to humanity,
Oh my god,
did you see the Alpine Star? I’m
not one for glitz but it’s amazing.
I’ve never seen anything like it.
I wouldn’t mind owning that.
Ugh! I wasn’t
talking to you,
thanks.
What would you know,
James? You’re just
jealous. I bet you wish
you had a diamond like
that.
Ha! You know most of this
stuff actually belongs to
other people, right? It’s all
just stolen goods.
Oh, please. My family could
buy this museum – and yours
live in one! Hur hur!
Ha ha. Fat
chance!
57
The Alpine Star WAS amazing - Martha was
raving about it. I couldn’t believe how sparkly
it was. But Sherlock kept wandering off - he
wasn’t really that bothered by all the cool
stuff on display. He seemed more interested in
the museum staff than anything else. He kept
staring at all the different staff members
walking around, a thoughtful look on his face.
All too soon it was time to leave, and we
hadn’t finished the treasure hunt. I did
manage half a drawing of a really
cool statue of Emperor Napoleon
wearing a hat though!
Oh well – it’s a good
excuse to come back!
But just as we were
getting ready to leave, everything
went weird. I mean, I say weird
– but I mean WEIRD – like
totally, absolutely freakishly
crazy weird…
58
The first thing I knew, music started playing in
the gallery below us…
B
O
O
M
B
O
O
M
B
O
O
M
B
O
O
M
!
B
O
O
M
B
O
O
M
B
O
O
M
B
O
O
M
!
Hey, what’s going
on?! Where’s that
music coming from?
UPTOWN
FUNKY!
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
5
THE SCIENCE OF
DISTRACTION
59
UPTOWN
FUNKY!
It was so loud, like, just blasting out all of a
sudden. Martha’s friends got excited because it
was their favourite track,
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It was crazy! All of a sudden a massive crowd
of what looked like museum staff flooded into
the room…
Oh, cool! I love this song.
AWESOME!
WOAH!
YEAH!
Wait a minute, what are
all those people doing?
Hey, Ms DeRossi,
check it out. It’s a
flash mob!
Are they museum
staff?
I think they’re just
dressed up as staff. This
is so weird!
Look
–
they’re
dancing!
61
I’d seen videos of this kind of stuff before, but
it’s different when it happens right next to you.
At first we all thought it was great fun. Daz and
a couple of the girls even started to join in. It
was brilliant!
Just then…
BEEEEEEEP BEEEEEEEP
BeEEEEEEP BEEEEEEEP
BEEEEEEEP BEEEEEEEP
BeEEEEEEP BEEEEEEEP
BEEEEEEEP BEEEEEEEP
BeEEEEEEP BEEEEEEEP
62
The alarms started going off – and I knew that
wasn’t a good sound, especially when I heard
shouting and smashing noises in the background.
People were running everywhere, trying to get
out of the way.
“OK, everybody, stay together. Quickly, now
– we need to make our way out of the building.
Everybody follow me,” cried Martha.
“Where’s Sherlock? And where’s Ms
DeRossi?” I yelled.
“Look, there’s Mr Gapp and the others –
let’s join them,” Martha said.
“Wait a minute – is that the police?”
“Yeah… Hey, that’s my dad!” shouted Henry.
“Whoah! This is AWESOME! So much for a
boring trip to the museum…”
What’s going on?!
Nope, definitely spies...
NINJAS!
Secret spies on
a mission?
63
FLASH ROB!
The British Arts &
Antiquities Museum
in West London saw
the most extraordinary
scenes earlier today as
it was momentarily
overtaken by what can
only be described
as a FLASH MOB
ROBBERY ATTEMPT!
Hundreds of visitors,
including children on
a school trip, were
stunned as a crowd
dressed in museum staff
uniforms caused just
enough of a distraction
to enable a canny thief
to make a smash and
grab of the PRICELESS
Alpine Star, a jewel with
a long and troubled
history.
The jewel was on
display as part of the
25 Treasures exhibition.
After touring European
arts venues for the last
few years, the collection
of exhibits has only
recently returned to
their home at the B&A
Museum…
More on page 4
by Benedict Cabbagebat
Bizarre goings-on at the
B&A Museum led to some
red-faced embarrassment
for a NOT-so-light-fingered
thief who attempted to steal
&
nbsp; a famous jewel in broad
daylight. After making off
with the famous Alpine Star
gem during a flash mob
event, things turned sour for
the criminal when he made
his getaway.
The thief, a 43-year-old
Italian national named
Pietro Vencini, made his
getaway in an ancient blue
Fiat 500, but barely made it
a few hundred metres down
the road through the London
traffic before spluttering to
a stop. The police, led by
Detective Inspector Adrian
Baker of Scotland Yard,
were able to apprehend him
within minutes to the cheers
of watching crowds.
The suspect had been
working as a staff member
at the B&A Museum for
the past three weeks before
making his attempt. His
lawyer has released a brief
statement:
My client has been the victim
of a terrible injustice. We will
be cooperating fully with the
police as we work towards
clearing his name. Pietro is
a kind-hearted family man.
He is greatly missing his son,
Napoleon. Everything points
to him being an upstanding
pillar of the community. He is
hoping to be able to return to
his job at the museum shortly.
Red-Handed: Pietro Vencini
D.I. Hero: Adrian Baker
Museum thief fails in ridiculous getaway attempt
Blue Car Bungle!
“
”
65
https://www.artsonline.co.uk/news-museums-london-b&a-robbery-on
Arts Online: Ne..
The British Arts & Antiquities Museum has had more
than its fair share of time in the spotlight over the
150 years since its founding. No event this century,
however, can match the excitement and intrigue
sparked by the return of the 25 Treasures exhibition to
its spiritual home … particularly the mysterious Alpine
Star, which has once again hit the news this week as
the object of an outrageous attempted theft.
The Alpine Star was discovered in
the nineteenth century, and since
then its origins have been hotly
debated. Taken from an Indian
mine during an expedition, it is said