Dark Chicago       The City    Landmarks & Lore    Landmarks    Culture & Leisure      Art Institute of Chicago

“Some museums preserve beauty. This one buries it. Walk too deep and you’ll find things that remember being worshipped—and aren’t done yet.”

Location: Grant Park, Loop District
Established: 1893, expanded over decades
Access: Public (some areas restricted)
Connected Factions: The Mother (rumored Veil ties in the basement archives), The Outfit (protection rackets on restoration contractors), University occult circles

Description - Exterior

Stone lions flank the main entrance, eternally watchful through the grit of soot and rain. Its Beaux-Arts facade is impressive by day—but at dusk, its windows seem to dim prematurely, casting unnatural shadows across the marble steps. Pigeons avoid the southern pediment, where the sculpture reliefs twist subtly when no one's looking.

Description - Interior

The halls echo even when they’re crowded. Masterpieces hang beside lesser-known works that shouldn’t evoke the feelings they do—panic, longing, dread. The lower-level corridors grow colder than the heating system should allow. Some say you can smell incense beneath Gallery 13, though no such services are scheduled. A security light in the Asian Art wing flickers every night at 3:09.

Public Face

Chicago’s cultural crown jewel, open to all. Known for its encyclopedic collections, breathtaking impressionists, and rotating modern exhibitions. Guided tours, educational programs, donor galas. A civilizing influence in a city always brushing against the feral.

What's Really Going On

The archives below house more than art. Certain acquisitions—“donated” from overseas excavations, postwar looting, or Veil-affiliated collectors—carry old power. One statue is chained to the wall in a locked sub-basement. An entire restoration wing burned down in '47, no clear cause. Pieces shift locations on their own, and new interns often suffer night terrors… if they make it past their first week.

Notables

Dr. Edith Harrow – Lead curator, suspected to be part of a secretive Veil preservation circle.
Gino Moretti – Janitor with Outfit ties, rumored to sell private access to restricted wings.
Professor Tench (deceased?) – Former art historian who vanished mid-lecture after restoring an Etruscan mask.
“The Bronze Saint” – Uncatalogued sculpture that appears in different wings each month, always flanked by dead light bulbs.

Rumors & Hooks:

• A painting removed in 1933 is back—but no one remembers acquiring it. It weeps turpentine at midnight.
• There’s a gallery that doesn’t show up on the map. Entry requires a coin with no country.
• A cursed print reportedly drove two docents to suicide. The third speaks only in riddles now.
• Veil bleed from an Egyptian funerary exhibit has triggered poltergeist activity near Gallery 5.
• An underground network of preservationists believes the Institute is a prison for ancient spirits.
• The statue garden rearranges itself during solar eclipses.
• A Veil-sensitive PC might feel a painting watching them—and whispering their true name.
• The Mother wants an artifact retrieved. It’s been under lock and ritual since 1904.
• City Hall is pressuring the Institute to “decommission” arcane art before the next audit. Quietly.