It's beautiful - your wife must be proud and rightfully smug. Thanks for coming back with the photos! It's a great lesson about the impact of your grout choice.

@km kane No I'm sorry I do not owe anyone anything. I'm building a CUSTOM home and paid lots of $$$ for that tile and I am paying an arm and a leg to get it installed through the builder. He's a nice guy but the signed order/instructions clearly state he had to contact me prior to installing and I even sent him pics with the stacked tile several weeks ago to inquire about grout selection. He contacted me beforehand for each and every bathroom he did (and I have 5 of those with yes STACKED tiles) and I have absolutely no idea why he went ahead and did the kitchen staggered without my input. The staggered look drove me nuts and that is not how I designed my kitchen. Now my walls may be messed up and it will definitely delay things. But I'm a reasonable person and I understand mistakes will happen during a build. But of course with the money and time I am spending I expect them to be corrected.

I'm currently hunting for 3x3 arts & crafts tiles for my bath in matte finishes and have sampled a number of them so far -- check out Macintones at completetile.com (which are re-branded McIntyre Tile), also Seneca tile in OH is apparently starting up manufacture again soon. The Macintones are available in a zillion sizing & shape options and the matte finishes I have from them are subtle and gorgeous. Also: Winchester and Claysquared make nice matte finishes.

I think if you hang it raised (or rotate it), it will be too close to the ceiling. The masonry hook is one idea, but it doesn't have to be higher. Try the museum wax or clear pushpins or other suggestions to keep it on the shelf, then if it just seems to unstable, do the hook, but at same level. PS, great art, and fine reasoning about the multi-object alternative.