An art gallery in Germany has fired an employee who hung his own artwork in a bid for glory, banning him from exhibitions for life.
Munich’s Pinakothek der Moderne, which houses some world-famous works by the likes of Picasso, Dali, Warhol and Kandinsky, immediately fired the 51-year-old staff member after it was discovered he had drilled new holes in the gallery wall.
He mounted a 24-by-40-inch artwork in one of the modern art museum’s hallways, but gallery officials said it was spotted and removed in just eight hours.
“The regulators notice something like this immediately,” spokesperson Tine Nehler told the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
“The employee considers himself an artist and most likely saw his role on the museum installation team as a daily task to support his true calling,” the gallery told The Guardian.
The unnamed employee, who described himself as a freelance artist, was reported to police and when questioned reportedly told officers he had smuggled his work into the building outside office hours.
He hoped that bringing his painting to the attention of the gallery would lead to his “artistic breakthrough”, police told German media.
Munich’s Pinakothek der Moderne, which houses some world-famous works by the likes of Picasso, Dali, Warhol and Kandinsky, immediately fired the 51-year-old staff member after it was discovered he had drilled new holes in the gallery wall.
General view during the PIN Party in Pinakothek der Moderne
FILE: A series of monumental racks from the Design Museum of the Pinakothek der Moderne (Gallery of the Modern), Munich, Germany – February 4, 2016
The sneak installation took place on February 23 and was only made public this week.
Now the hapless artist is under investigation for causing damage to property after drilling the holes in the gallery wall.
But his daring attempt to exhibit his work is not technically a criminal offense and it is unlikely that legal action will be taken against him, although his employment was terminated for misconduct.
His artwork was reportedly returned to him, but the gallery did not provide details about the piece to “encourage counterfeit pranksters.”
“I can only say that we have not received any positive feedback on the addition from visitors to the gallery,” the spokesperson said.
It comes months after a Danish court in September ordered an artist to repay a museum that gave him 70,000 euros in cash for art – just for supplying blank canvases..
Jens Haaning was commissioned by the Arts Museum in the western city of Aalborg to reproduce two works using cash – Danish crowns and euros – to represent the annual salary in Denmark and Austria.
But Haaning simply brought blank canvases back 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 saw the two blank canvases for the first time in 2021, and decided to show the works anyway.
He said they have a “humorous approach” and are “a reflection of how we value work,” but confirmed that the museum would take Haaning to court if he did not pay back the money, which he declined to do.
A court in Copenhagen ordered the 58-year-old artist to repay the museum equal to the amount it gave him minus the artist’s fee and editing costs.
But in an interview with TV2 Nord, Haaning said the museum had made “much, much more” money than what it had invested thanks to the publicity surrounding the affair.
“It’s been good for my work, but it also puts me in an uncontrollable situation where I don’t really know what to do,” he added.
The museum believed that the artist intended to include the banknotes in an installation they had commissioned him to make. But when the artwork was first unveiled, museum staff were shocked to find nothing but a large, empty frame
The museum nevertheless decided to put the empty frames on display, admitting that Haaning had created an “interesting work of art,” but a Danish court ultimately 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 Arts Museum in Aalborg to use as part of a work of art, but instead he sent the museum empty frames and took the money
The museum initially thought that the artist intended to incorporate the banknotes they had made available to him into an installation they had commissioned him to make.
But when the artwork was first unveiled, museum staff were shocked to find nothing but a large, empty frame.
Shortly after the curtains were first unveiled, Haaning said: “It’s not theft. It is a breach of contract, and breach of contract is part of the job,” he said.
“The work is that I took their money.”
Born in 1965 in Hoersholm, Haaning became popular 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 employees’ annual salaries.
The museum expected Haaning to use the money it lent him to recreate his earlier artwork by placing the banknotes in two picture frames, which would visualize the average annual income of a person in Denmark and Austria and be part of the ‘Work It Out’. exhibition.
But just as the installation was about to open for the first time, the museum received an email from Haaning, confirming that he had taken the money and would not pay it back.
“We were then able to determine that the money had not been invested in the work,” says a museum spokesperson.
The Arts Museum of Modern Art in Aarlborg, Northern Denmark, presents Haaning’s artworks as part of the installation ‘Work it Out’
Take the Money and Run’ by Danish artist Jens Haaning, on display at the Kunsten museum in Aalborg, Sweden, September 28, 2021. The list should have been filled with approximately 550,000 Danish kroner in cash, which should correspond to the average annual salary in Austria and Denmark
In 2021, Arts director Lasse Andersen told DR that he agreed that Haaning had created an interesting work of art and that the museum would continue to exhibit the empty frames but would take legal action if the artist did not return the money before the agreed date of January 16 would return. , 2022.
‘I agree with Jens that an independent work has been created that actually comments on the exhibition we have. But that’s not the agreement we had,” he said.
‘We are currently waiting. If the money is not refunded as agreed on January 16, we will of course take the necessary steps to ensure that Jens Haaning fulfills his contract.’
Andersen claimed that the artist’s contract with the museum included an exhibition fee for his work of approximately €1,340, but that the museum would cover all costs up to €6,000.
For his part, Haaning said he had taken the money in response to his poor working conditions, claiming the museum’s meager wages meant he had had to sacrifice £2,850 of his own money to complete the installation.
‘[Returning the money] not going to happen. The work is that I took their money,” he told Danish broadcaster DR.
‘I encourage other people whose working conditions are as poor as mine to do the same.
“If they have a shitty job and they’re not getting paid, and they’re actually being asked to pay money to go to work, take what you can and beat it,” he said.