A Danish artist was given tens of thousands of dollars by a museum to reproduce an old sculpture. Instead, he pocketed the money and called it a new c

A Danish Museum Lent an Artist $84,000 to Reproduce an Old Work About Labor. Instead, He Pocketed It and Called It Conceptual Art

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2021-09-28 15:00:08

A Danish artist was given tens of thousands of dollars by a museum to reproduce an old sculpture. Instead, he pocketed the money and called it a new conceptual artwork.

Take the Money and Run is the name of the piece by artist Jens Haaning—as well as a rather straightforward description of it.

For its current exhibition, the Kunsten Museum of Modern Art in ​​Aalborg, Denmark, lent Haaning 534,000 kroner ($84,000). Per their written agreement, the artist would exhibit the banknotes themselves, effectively recreating a pair of artworks he made in 2007 and 2010 that represented the average annual incomes of an Austrian and a Dane, respectively. 

However, when the museum opened up the box containing Haaning’s piece, they found two empty frames. The banknotes were absent.

“The work is that I have taken their money,” Haaning told the Danish radio program  P1 Morgen last week. “It’s not theft. It is a breach of contract, and breach of contract is part of the work.”

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