Cleaner Scrubs Away £690,000 Work Of Art

Paddy Samurai

A German museum is counting the cost after a cleaning woman mistook a valuable sculpture for an unsightly mess - and damages it beyond repair.

The Martin Kippenberger installation entitled When It Starts Dripping From the Ceiling was on display at the Ostwall Museum in Dortmund.
The late modern master had created a tower of wooden slats under which a rubber trough was placed with a thin beige layer of paint representing dried rain water.
Taking it for a stain, the cleaner scrubbed the surface until it gleamed.
"It is now impossible to return it to its original state," a city spokesman said.
She said the work, valued by insurers at 800,000 euros (£690,000), had been loaned to the museum by a private collector.
Cleaning crews had orders to keep 20cm (8ins) away from artworks but it was unclear if the woman had been informed of this by the contractor that employed her.

Fellow boardsies,just a word of warning,,keep an eye on your cleaners. Looking at what's classed as modern art,I think I might have a few valuable messes works of art around my house.

It is not the first time works of art have suffered at the hands of over-zealous cleaners.In 1986, a 'grease stain' by Joseph Beuys valued at around £346,000 was mopped away at the Academy of Fine Arts in Duesseldorf, western Germany.

Must say it to my other half,to cut out all that cleaning.....it could be costing us money.


http://news.sky.com/home/strange-news/article/16103163

Korvanica

German cleaners just hate art...

Smcgie

You wouldn't have to tell an Irish cleaner to stay 8inches away from the painting. Cleaning around things is standard practice.

Ellis Dee

What is the world coming to? A cleaning woman who actually cleans the place.:):)

Morlar

"She said the work, valued by insurers at 800,000 euros (£690,000), had been loaned to the museum by a private collector."

I'd be interested to see how much money was actually paid for that.

Dotrel

The creator of the work should have put a sign saying "this is not a pretentious piece of crap made by local cub scouts" next to his 'art'.

Orando Broom

Teutonic efficiency hates the arts.

Rented Mule

Dotrel wrote: »

The creator of the work should have put a sign saying "this is not a pretentious piece of crap made by local cub scouts" next to his 'art'.

Dead men post no signs.

Dotrel

Rented Mule wrote: »

Dead men post no signs.

He's dead? Oh that changes everything. Masterpiece!

Oranage2

Modern art is so pretentious how do we know that the cleaner wasnt actually another artist paying tribute?

Naomi00

That's happened loads of times.

Dotrel

http://art-documents.tumblr.com/post/11571788761/martin-kippenbergers-untitled-sculpture-1990

Sold for $2million. I'm in the wrong line of work.

cosmicfart

Paddy Samurai wrote: »

Fellow boardsies,just a word of warning,,keep an eye on your cleaners. Looking at what's classed as modern art,I think I might have a few valuable messes works of art around my house.



Must say it to my other half,to cut out all that cleaning.....it could be costing us money.


http://news.sky.com/home/strange-news/article/16103163

I do my own cleaning. Are you a WBanker or something

LizT

That's classed as art? reminds me of the Simpsons when Homer's BBQ is mistaken for a work of art.

booboo88

She can come clean my house.....she just get rid of the clutter that seems never ending.

Morlar

Dotrel wrote: »

http://art-documents.tumblr.com/post/11571788761/martin-kippenbergers-untitled-sculpture-1990

Sold for $2million. I'm in the wrong line of work.

I reckon EU Bondholders must have some pretty interesting looking living rooms.

Broads.ie

Jesus that piece of "art" is actually shyte. If I was the cleaning lady I would have mistaken the whole thing for rubbish and thrown it out.

texidub

Happened to an 'art work' by Hirst too... http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2001/oct/19/arts.highereducation1

Saila

|If you can read this you have scrubbed too hard|

--Kaiser--

We should bring this cleaner over to the Irish Museum of Modern Art.
Biggest pile of talentless crap I ever did see

Killer Pigeon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZP7or7hMS0

earpiece

If any of you are interested in a replica, i'd be happy to put some together for €250,000 (delivery included).

stephen_k

Oranage2 wrote: »

Modern art is so pretentious how do we know that the cleaner wasnt actually another artist paying tribute?

Just have the cleaner as a permanent installation in the "piece", call it the "Eternal Struggle", should add a couple of mill....

psychward

Dotrel wrote: »

http://art-documents.tumblr.com/post/11571788761/martin-kippenbergers-untitled-sculpture-1990

Sold for $2million. I'm in the wrong line of work.

jeez me too. I can make crap like that. easy.


I was in a modern art museum in San Fran a few years ago on some day when it was free entry and everyone including myself was standing around looking at some ladder next to a hole. A security guard came up to us and said ''thats not art, it's a hole in the wall''
I laughed my ass off but the art snobs next to me looked really embarrassed

fran oconnor

lizt wrote: »

That's classed as art? reminds me of the Simpsons when Homer's BBQ is mistaken for a work of art.

Is it that bunch of ice pop sticks??.

ejmaztec

Oranage2 wrote: »

Modern art is so pretentious how do we know that the cleaner wasnt actually another artist paying tribute?

Talking of pretentious tools, Damian Hirst's next piece will be "dead German cleaner in formaldehyde"

superstoner90

this is what really happened

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrepmPAmEWY

holystungun9

Just goes to show that 'art' is very very subjective. I have no doubt that if you took a dump on the floor of some museum and put some velvet rope around it, that at least a few people would start discussing it.

"Oh, I think that it captures the essence of humanity"

"Indeed, it is something that unites us all but we daren't share with others"

"Yes, it's very provocative. I think it a metaphor for the consumerist ways that are ruining the very fabric of our society"













KN0BHEADS !!!

tiger55

Probably a polish immigrant cleaner

PickledLime

Fantastic, the woman has taste, good on her!

saa

Take a song from some hipster synth band and saying there look all music is rubbish, I could do that, this is pretentious so all music is pretentious.

Take a piece of art from some artist who are backed up by rich socialites and say all art is rubbish, I could do that, this is pretentious so all art is pretentious.

yoyo

holystungun9 wrote: »

Just goes to show that 'art' is very very subjective. I have no doubt that if you took a dump on the floor of some museum and put some velvet rope around it, that at least a few people would start discussing it.

funnily enough something similiar has already been done, nsfw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9lmvX00TLY

Nick

PrincessLola

I hope she didn't lose her job.

Alan b.

saa wrote: »

Take a song from some hipster synth band and saying there look all music is rubbish, I could do that, this is pretentious so all music is pretentious.

Take a piece of art from some artist who are backed up by rich socialites and say all art is rubbish, I could do that, this is pretentious so all art is pretentious.

i dont think anyone is claiming ALL art is pretentious and rubbish, but in fairness, anything thats creation consisted of sipping herbal tea staring at a blank space from all differant angles then dropping a blob of paint on the floor and calling it done, IS NOT ART NOR IS IT CREATIVE

Its bollox.

Wibbs

In before "at one time people didn't think the impressionists/Van Gogh were good art, you know".

Which is bollocks BTW. The art establishment considered it dubious for a time, but people bought impressionist works from pretty early on. Ten years after their first exhibition the stuff was mad money for an average person. Monet died a wealthy man. Van Gogh started to sell pretty soon after he died. Bit late for him mind you.

There are some fantastic artists out there today and over the last 50 years but among their number are some seriously shíte ones that are feted for no good reason I can see beyond fashion and pretense.

suicide_circus

That was a sh¡tass art, fair play to her for doing her job

Run_to_da_hills

Was the cleaning woman a blonde?

Kidchameleon

Would you believe that this piece of **** was the most expensive piece of "art" ever sold...

Capt'n Midnight

From an investment point of view modern art is like bitcoins

once it's easily recognisable as distinct and that you can show it has a limited supply then it's value can go up as an investment based solely on the basis that others will think likewise

I'm talked to far too many artists who have tried random stuff , including chemical corrosion, to produce pretty/interesting pictures. Newsflash, humans are so good at recognising patterns they will see them even when they aren't there.

For me part of the value of conventional art is the amount of effort taken to create it , especially the planning. Random stuff is just a matter of time , eventually you will produce something interesting.

If you look at something and say "Meh , I could have done that" instead of "wow" then it's more likely to be Art as in Arts and crafts rather than fine art.

Dravokivich

Kidchameleon wrote: »

Would you believe that this piece of **** was the most expensive piece of "art" ever sold...

That's not an art... this is an art!

rainbowdrop

Reminds me of the urban legend about patients who keep dying whilst on a life support machine. The doctors are baffled until they figure out what's been happening.

They eventually find out that the cleaner has been unplugging life support machines in order to plug in her vacuum cleaner. By the time she has finished her hoovering and plugs the life support machine back in, the patient is dead........

http://thoselegends.blogspot.com/2007/09/cleaner-polishes-off-patient.html

Logical Fallacy

In fairness, fair play to the artist. They managed to create a piece of art that was supposed to be dirty, and they did it so well, and with such a grounding in reality that a trained cleaning professional mistook it for genuine dirt.

You couldn't do that by just letting something get dirty.

Dotrel

Kidchameleon wrote: »

Would you believe that this piece of **** was the most expensive piece of "art" ever sold...

Even the name of it just screams a guy who is taking the piss

"White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose)"

Ellis Dee

An acquaintance of mine is a fairly senior official in the royal palace in Stockholm. He told me about a young man who got a job on the maintenance staff there and was clearly anxious to prove his dedication to the job.

One day he noticed a 16th-century commode, probably priceless, but looking a bit flaky. So he took it home one weekend, sanded it down and applied a beautiful shiny coat of epoxy paint. When he proudly brought it back on the Monday morning and showed it to his superior, smiling as he anticipated much praise, the latter fainted ...:o:o:o

OutlawPete

Happened me a few years back, when I was working in the UK as a security guard at a very prestigious art gallery. Went in one morning and seen that one of my co-security guards had only gone and slept his way through the night. The fcuker even brought in a bed, which he didn't even make, let alone take with him when he headed off home.

So ended up making it for him and was gonna pretend that a furniture company delivered it by mistake when this made little posh bitch came running in, jumped on the bed screaming: "My art, my work of art. What have you done you Irish mick?!?". Got the bleedin sack I did.

Rhyme

Oranage2 wrote: »

Modern art is so pretentious how do we know that the cleaner wasnt actually another artist paying tribute?

Quiet Duchamp, you're supposed to be dead.

texidub wrote: »

Happened to an 'art work' by Hirst too... http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2001/oct/19/arts.highereducation1

Most of Hirst's stuff is complete tripe anyway, even on a conceptual level (this coming from a BA student)

Cee-Jay-Cee

I dribbled into a plastic bowl after eating chicken and gravy, then i heated it with a hairdryer. I'm gonna stick it on ebay for buy it now price of €250,000...bloody bargain!!!

stovelid

I love this story.

Tom Wolfe would be proud.

psychward

so how do I get one of dem handy art gigs ? If I crap into a bowl, put it on a pedestal smeared with vomit and tell everyone it's a statement against the war in Iraq will I have to fake my own death first before I can sell it for millions perhaps through an anonymous shell company based in Lichtenstein ?

kowloon

A load of Pollock's

A lot of this art only exists as a store of value. Once the number of people willing to shell out for something reaches a critical mass it fuels itself. Others will want it purely because it's wanted.

Beyond the few collectors these things are just like banknotes but with higher face values. Buying them is no different to speculating on the value of currency X.

saa

Alan b. wrote: »

i dont think anyone is claiming ALL art is pretentious and rubbish, but in fairness, anything thats creation consisted of sipping herbal tea staring at a blank space from all differant angles then dropping a blob of paint on the floor and calling it done, IS NOT ART NOR IS IT CREATIVE

Its bollox.

Actually within this context a lot of people are saying it is all rubbish, that's a fact people are saying that.

But what's worse is people saying something"IS NOT ART"?
Kind of undermines the time you've put into constructing all other observations about something you don't think is art.

I don't rate it, I don't value it doesn't mean its not art, or that a kind of film making I don't like isn't film because you're more familiar with conventional cinema.