For Director of the Museum of Art Katy Kline, the lions outside the Walker Art Building are a conversation-starter. Specifically, people often wonder if the lions were intentionally placed to face away from the steps, or if that may have been a mistake.
This common question is one on which she can only speculate.
The lions are copies of two lions at the Loggia di Lanzi in Florence. The original lions face inward, toward each other.
"I don't know. I assume they were intentionally placed that way because they were there when the museum opened in 1894. If a mistake had been made, you would assume they would change it," said Kline.
Director of Special Collections and Archives Richard Lindemann has researched the construction of the Walker Art Building, among other museum related topics, for a current exhibit in the library.
"I encountered no evidence of the intentionality of having the lions face outward," said Lindemann.
The College has blueprints for the museum from 1893. These drawings do not depict the lions at all. Later architectural drawings are housed at the New York Historical Society.
The lions were removed during the museum's recent renovation, creating an opportunity to switch their positions at last. However, the College opted not to do so.
"They were placed there for whatever reason and we decided to keep the original and authentic [placement]," said Kline.
"The only hope for a sudden illumination is if right now someone just stumbles over 'the smoking gun' document," said Kline. "I tend to think it's lost or doesn't exist because a lot of work was done on the building. If something were in plain sight, it would have been found."
For Kline, more than being an oddity, the lions add interest to the building.
"If [the lions] were facing in, people would stop seeing them and talking about them, but in this provocatively odd arrangement, people think about them and wonder," she said.