Look what she made them do.
Taylor Swift fans are flocking to a German museum to view a painting of the Shakespeare character Ophelia that the pop star reimagined in a music video for a song off her new album “The Life of a Showgirl.”
In the video for “The Fate of Ophelia,” which has already been viewed over 68 million times, the painting — housed in the Museum Wiesbaden — comes alive and Swift stars as its subject, donning a white gown and lying on a bed of water lilies.
The museum, which is located in the central German state of Hessen, welcomed hundreds more visitors than usual last weekend — as Swifties swooped in to catch a glimpse of the over-100-year-old oil painting by German artist Friedrich Heyser.
“We are having an absolute Ophelia run at the moment and are quite surprised and happy about it,” museum spokesperson Susanne Hirschmann told The Guardian.
“It’s been a shock, to be honest. We have a colleague who has a friend who is a Swift fan and she noticed the video’s opening scene had a similarity [with the Heyser painting] and we thought, wow, what a coincidence – that’s exciting … this is the first time we’ve really had a run on a painting.”
“It’s a lot more teens than we usually see,” Hirschmann added.
She also can’t help but wonder if Swift herself visited the museum back in July 2024, during her German leg of her Eras Tour.
“That would be truly insane!” Hirschmann told the outlet.
“We did ask ourselves: How did this come about? Did she pick the painting out? Has she seen it for herself? Was it a member of her team? I think if Taylor Swift came here, even incognito, we would have noticed.”
The museum is capitalizing on its newfound popularity by hosting a special tour called “Taylor Swift’s ‘Ophelia’ at the Wiesbaden museum” on Nov. 2 — and those who dress as the billionaire songstress or her muse Ophelia can attend it for free.
With Wires
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
