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Museum Overwhelmed by Flood of Taylor Swift Fans

The Hessische Landesmuseum in Wiesbaden, Germany, is now an unlikely pilgrimage site for Swifties.

A German museum has suddenly become a pilgrimage site for Swifties after a 1900-era painting bore an uncanny resemblance to Taylor Swift in her latest music video, The Fate of Ophelia. The Hessische Landesmuseum in Wiesbaden, Germany, saw hundreds of visitors over the weekend, including a family who drove more than 320 miles from Hamburg, just to glimpse the oil-on-canvas by Friedrich Heyser depicting Shakespeare’s tragic Ophelia in white, surrounded by water lilies. In Hamlet, Ophelia, a young noblewoman of Denmark, ultimately becomes mad and drowns. In the video’s opening scene, Swift herself transforms into a living version of Ophelia, echoing Heyser’s Art Nouveau composition. Museum director Andreas Henning told dpa, “We are surprised and delighted that Taylor Swift used this painting from the museum as inspiration for her video. This is, of course, a great opportunity to attract people to the museum who don’t know us yet.” The museum hasn’t confirmed whether Swift actually used the artwork as a reference. Attempts to reach the singer directly have failed, Henning said. “I would love to show Taylor Swift the original painting sometime,” he added.