Amsterdam Art Zoo cages visitors amid hundreds of taxidermied animals

Amsterdam's new Art Zoo, by Dutch artists Jaap Sinke and Ferry van Tongeren, puts visitors inside black metal cages in a 17th-century canal house while hundreds of taxidermied animals appear free. A 12-foot crocodile with open mouth is at the entrance. Other displays include a Japanese giant spider crab with 6-foot legs above a doorway, mastodon leg bones nearly to the ceiling, a 70-million-year-old Mosasaurus bone collection, a wall of Jenny Hanivers, and Darwin busts turned sideways. The building formerly housed the Biblical Museum. Specimens came from European zoos after natural deaths. "We really like the concept of having all the people in a cage and then all the animals free," van Tongeren said. "In that way, the whole building becomes one artwork." He told the AP they like storytelling with the animals and add drama and attitude rather than only mimicking nature. Sinke said all their animals come from zoos where they died of natural causes and noted paperwork can be challenging. After a dark October tour, visitor Tomáš Vaško said, "It was a little creepy." Damien Hirst bought their entire London exhibition in 2015. Rated left, center, and right coverage does not dispute these points; the accounts align on the same core record.