How much are you willing to wager that the Steelers will win Super Bowl XLV?

Would you put up your car? Your house? Your Renoir?

Carnegie Museum of Art is betting the latter -- Pierre-Auguste Renoir's "Bathers with Crab," painted in the 1890s. It depicts four seaside women, all naked as nymphs and one teasing and about to tickle another with a live crab.

But fear not, lovers of soft-focus, pastel-toned Impressionist works. The museum isn't betting ownership of the painting, just a three-month loan.

If the Steelers win, Carnegie Museum will be on the receiving end of "Boating on the Yerres," an 1877 painting by Gustave Caillebotte owned by the Milwaukee Art Museum.

But really, isn't it just a little un-American to bet two French Impressionists in the Super Bowl? Wouldn't a better matchup have been, say, a Frederic Remington and a George Bellows? Something with a little heft and swagger and brawn?

Whose idea was this, anyway?

"The bet was actually initiated by arts blogger Tyler Green, who contacted myself and my counterpart at the Milwaukee Art Museum," said Carnegie Museum spokeswoman Ellen James.

Mr. Green, one of the country's most influential arts bloggers, suggested the friendly wager Sunday night to Ms. James and her counterpart in Milwaukee.

"So both of us contacted our directors, who liked the idea," she said.

But what to wager?

"Both museums wanted to put up a great work of art and something that would definitely be missed from the collection," she said. Carnegie Museum wanted to wager something from its renowned Impressionist and Post-Impressionist collection but had to find a work that wasn't already committed to an upcoming exhibit or education program.

"The Renoir is definitely a favorite of many people," both visitors and staff, and is currently on view in Gallery 6.

Don't look for any pre-game taunting. Both museum directors are taking the high road.

"In Pittsburgh, we believe trash talk is bad form," Carnegie Museum's Lynn Zelevansky said in a statement. "We let the excellence of our football team, and our collection, speak for itself. It will be my great pleasure to see the Caillebotte from the Milwaukee Art Museum hang in our galleries."

Daniel Keegan, the Milwaukee museum's director and an avid Packers fan, is just as sanguine.

"I'm confident that we will be enjoying the Renoir from Carnegie Museum of Art very soon," he said in his statement. "I look forward to displaying it where the public can enjoy it and be reminded of the superiority of the Green Bay Packers."

We'll see about that.