It's hard to pick a rating because I have a lot of conflicting thoughts on this place. We found this place unexpectedly while out exploring Wynwood. The minute I walked through the door I was completely floored. They sell real dinosaur fossils, eggs, and the fossilized remains of other animals. I felt like I had walked into the New York Museum of Natural History except here you can buy anything you see if you have the money, in this case thousands of dollars. They also sell rocks and minerals, art and sculpture from all over the world, artifacts from pre Colombian civilizations, stuffed animal trophies, jewelry, pottery, mounted insects, wood carvings, and ethnic collectibles. The inventory is astonishing. Prices range from 3 for $5 for fox penis bones to many thousands of dollars for one of a kind fossils. It feels like a free museum inside and Art by God counts museums among its clients.
The owner of Art by God is Gene Harris, a self taught fossil collector. He opened his first store in the Loehmann's plaza in Kendall. The store was first called Haris's Art and Collectibles .The name was changed to Art by God because an attorney purchased a fossilized nautilus from Harris and called the store asking for the name of the artist. Harris told him "God forgot to sign it" and from that incident the name of the store was created. The store then went through several incarnations, 1987 Bayside Marketplace, 1990 a Laredo Texas showroom, 1992 Biscayne Blvd, and now Wynwood. Harris has been to more than 120 countries to find the items he sells.
In 2014 Harris was convicted of illegally selling the horns of an endangered black rhinoceros. The rhino was not freshly killed. Instead he brokered a deal between someone who wanted it and someone who had it. He collected a finders fee for the transaction but it was illegal to do so and he pleaded guilty. Although he claims not to hunt himself the store is filled with stuffed animals including a lion and polar bear. The polar bear was apparently killed in the 1970's. It had a sign that it was killed by a wildlife conservationist and trophy hunter. I don't think you can be both things. In my opinion the animals should have been left alone where they were living. No one needs a dead lion to decorate their living room. Another thing that bothered me were the skulls from the Inca burial sites. I am not in favoring of plundering ancient civilizations burial grounds so their dead can be sold. That's the problem with going around the world to buy unusual things. You might encounter some poor people selling things they should not be selling.
This was a hard review to write because on the one hand this is an amazing store that has things that I didn't know it was possible to buy. On the other hand it hurt my heart to see so many animals killed for decoration. So in the end my review is going to land in the middle. Mr. Harris could keep his collection private and only let actual buyers see it. Instead he has a store and everyone is invited to look around for free and take as many pictures as they want. I have never been in a store like this before. It's definitely one of a kind. read more