An art gallery in Germany has fired an employee who hung his own artwork in a bid for glory and banned him from exhibiting for life.
Munich’s Pinakothek der Moderne, which displays some world-famous works by artists including Picasso, Dali, Warhol and Kandinsky, immediately fired the 51-year-old staff member after it was discovered that he had drilled new holes in the gallery wall.
He mounted a 23×47-inch work of art in one of the modern art museum’s hallways, but gallery officials said it was discovered and removed within just eight hours.
“Supervisors immediately notice something like this,” spokesman Tine Nehler told German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
“The employee considers himself an artist and most likely saw his role on the museum’s installation team as a day job to support his true calling,” the gallery told The Guardian.
The anonymous employee, who described himself as a freelance artist, was reported to police and, after being questioned, allegedly told officers that he had smuggled his work into the building after hours.
He hoped that getting his painting noticed in the gallery would lead to his “artistic breakthrough,” police told German media.
Munich’s Pinakothek der Moderne, which displays some world-famous works by artists including Picasso, Dali, Warhol and Kandinsky, immediately fired the 51-year-old staff member after it was discovered that he had made new holes in the gallery wall.
General view during the PIN party at the Pinakothek der Moderne
FILE: A set of monumental shelves from the Design Museum of the Pinakothek der Moderne (Gallery of the Modern), Munich, Germany – February 4, 2016
The stealth installation was carried out on February 23 and was not made public until this week.
Now the unfortunate artist is being investigated for causing property damage after punching holes in the gallery wall.
But his bold attempt to showcase his work is not technically a criminal offense and he is unlikely to face legal action, even though he was terminated from employment for misconduct.
His artwork was reportedly returned to him, but the gallery did not provide details of the piece to avoid “encouraging prankster imitators.”
“All I can say is that we have not received any positive response from visitors to the gallery,” the spokesperson said.
It comes months after a Danish court in September ordered an artist to reimburse a museum that gave him €70,000 in cash for art, only for him to hand over blank canvases..
The Kunsten Museum in the western city of Aalborg commissioned Jens Haaning to reproduce two works using cash (Danish krone and euros) to represent the annual salary in Denmark and Austria.
But Haaning simply returned the empty canvases to the museum and said his work was titled “Take the Money and Run.”
Museum director Lasse Andersson previously said he laughed out loud when he first saw the two blank canvases in 2021 and decided to display the works anyway.
He said they have a “humorous approach” and were “a reflection of how we value the work”, but confirmed that the museum would take Haaning to court if he did not return the money, which he refused.
A court in Copenhagen ordered the artist, 58, to repay the museum the equivalent of the sum it had given him minus the artist’s fee and the cost of assembly.
But in an interview with TV2 Nord television, Haaning said the museum had made “much, much more” money than it invested thanks to the publicity surrounding the affair.
“It’s been good for my job, but it also puts me in an unmanageable situation where I don’t really know what to do,” he added.
The museum thought the artist planned to include the bills in an installation he had been commissioned to create. But when the artwork was first revealed, museum staff were horrified to find nothing but a large empty frame.
However, the museum decided to display the empty frames, admitting that Haaning had created an “interesting work of art”, but a Danish court eventually ordered the artist to return the money.
Jens Haaning, a 58-year-old artist living in Copenhagen, received 534,000 kroner in cash from the Kunsten Museum in Aalborg to use as part of a work of art, but instead sent the museum empty frames and took the money.
Initially, the museum thought the artist planned to include the banknotes they provided him in an installation they had commissioned him to create.
But when the artwork was first revealed, museum staff were horrified to find nothing but a large, empty frame.
Speaking shortly after the canvases were first revealed, Haaning said: “It’s not theft. It’s a breach of contract, and breach of contract is part of the job,” he said.
“The job is that I have taken their money.”
Haaning, who was born in Hoersholm in 1965, gained popularity in the 1990s for his art that focuses on power structures and differences between social groups, and had previously created artworks using banknotes to represent wages. annual workers.
The museum hoped Haaning would use the money it lent him to recreate his previous artwork by arranging the banknotes into two frames, which would visualize the average annual income of a person in Denmark and Austria and form part of the ‘Work It Out’ programme. exhibit.
But just as the facility was ready to open for the first time, the museum received an email from Haaning who confirmed that he had accepted the money and would not return it.
“Later we were able to verify that the money had not been used for the work,” said a museum spokesperson.
The Kunsten Museum of Modern Art in Aarlborg, northern Denmark, hosts Haaning’s artwork as part of the ‘Work it Out’ installation.
Take the Money and Run’ by Danish artist Jens Haaning, on display at the Kunsten museum in Aalborg, Sweden, September 28, 2021. The frame should have been filled with around 550,000 Danish crowns in cash, which is supposed to match the average annual salary in Austria and Denmark
In 2021, Kunsten director Lasse Andersen told DR that he agreed that Haaning had created an interesting work of art and that the museum would continue to display the empty frames, but would take legal action if the artist did not return the money. before the contracted date of January 16. , 2022.
‘I agree with Jens that a work of his own has been created that really comments on the exhibition we have. But that’s not the agreement we had,” he stated.
‘Right now we wait and see. If the money is not returned by January 16 as agreed, we will of course take the necessary measures to ensure that Jens Haaning fulfills his contract.’
Andersen stated that the artist’s contract with the museum included an exhibition fee for his work of around 1,340 euros, but that the museum would cover any expenses up to 6,000 euros.
For his part, Haaning said he accepted the money in response to his poor working conditions, claiming the museum’s paltry salary meant he would have had to sacrifice £2,850 of his own money to complete the installation.
‘[Returning the money] It’s not going to happen. The problem is that I have taken their money,” he told Danish broadcaster DR.
‘I encourage other people who have working conditions as miserable as mine to do the same.
“If they’re sitting in some shitty job and they’re not getting paid, and they’re actually asking them to pay money to go to work, then take what they can get and make it,” he said.