Modern art is not trash...

[Hottentot]

...Modern trash is art. Apparently someone hadn't yet heard the saying, though, because according to The Local...

A cleaning woman at a museum in Dortmund who mistook a Martin Kippenberger sculpture for an unsightly mess has destroyed the valuable artwork beyond recognition.

It's like straight from a parody sketch or a comic strip, but then again, I sometimes wonder how it doesn't happen more often, museums being public places and all.

Sad, though. I'm not especially fond of art museums, but I feel for them in this case. Probably one of the worst things you can imagine hearing in a museum is "oops." And while I have every ounce of respect for the conservators, the museum's spokewoman is likely right in this case. Must be fun explaining that to the private collector who borrowed it to them.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Hottentot

...Modern trash is art. Apparently someone hadn't yet heard the saying, though, because according to The Local...

It's like straight from a parody sketch or a comic strip, but then again, I sometimes wonder how it doesn't happen more often, museums being public places and all.

It does. 1986, a cleaning women cleans up the "Fettecke" by Joseph Beuys. 1973: two cleaning women destroyed a "sculpture" by Beuys again, which was a bathing tub filled with gauze bandage, they threw away the bandages, then filled the tub with water and soap and cleaned the room with it. 1998: in Berlin a simple picture on a housewall got painted over during house renovations, unfortunately it was considered to be "art". 2007: a sculpture by Ai Weiwei gets blown down by the wind, the man says: "Its better than before". Der Spiegel refers to a Casino mogul who slammed his ellbow into the Picasso he just had bought, then there was a young american women who fell into a painting at the Metropolitan Museum ("The Actor"), and in London a police officer climbed a chair to close a window, and fell down from the stair and into another painting, ripping a big hole into it (the Queen was not amused, since she owned it).

The Kippenberger garbage is just this: garbage. And the man himself also was extremely critical of the arts business, and often made cynical mockery of it. That he delivered rubbish to get much money for it probably was his form to take revenge on society that he disliked for it's idiocy and decandent incompetence in understanding what art is. If I were the cleaning women, I probably would have thought the construction workers forgot to clean up, and would have thrown all the stuff out of the window, convicned that I do a good job in cleaning the room.

Sad, though. I'm not especially fond of art museums, but I feel for them in this case. Probably one of the worst things you can imagine hearing in a museum is "oops." And while I have every ounce of respect for the conservators, the museum's spokewoman is likely right in this case. Must be fun explaining that to the private collector who borrowed it to them.

It is easy to explain to the collector. Just tell him: "since you were dumb enough to spend 800.000 bucks for this infantile garbage, I assume you are not bright enough to really mourn over the loss of money by this damage, since you have thrown it out of the window already anyway. At least you get a cleaned bucket in return."

The alternative is you pay me 125.000 bucks. I then would take that bucket home over the weekend and for that price am willing to bring a new layer of hydraulic lime onto it. Quality has its price, I'm sure you understand.

Alternativel I can offer you a used and full cat pan with sand and fresh goodies. I think it would add a full new level of meaning to the overall artwork, if you put it under that wooden ladder the craftsmen have fogotten.

If you meet idiots willing to pay you much money for your morning poo-poo, my advise is: don't make them stop, since eating you will every day.

[Pisces]

She can always start working here. They've got a carpet that needs cleaning up since last may.

http://www.boijmans.nl/en/7/calendar...im-t-schippers

[Kongo Otto]

Originally Posted by Skybird

It is easy to explain to the collector. Just tell him: "since you were dumb enough to spend 800.000 bucks for this infantile garbage, I assume you are not bright enough to really mourn over the loss of money by this damage, since you have thrown it out of the window already anyway. At least you get a cleaned bucket in return."