Museum cleaner mistakenly throws away $13k modern art display

[Nye Bevan]

A cleaner has mistakenly thrown away contemporary artworks meant to be part of an exhibition in southern Italy.

Works made out of newspaper and cardboard, and cookie pieces scattered across the floor as part of Sala Murat's display were thrown out.

Lorenzo Roca, from cleaning firm Chiarissima, said the unnamed cleaner was "just doing her job". He added his firm's insurance would cover the value of the art, estimated to be around 10,000 euros (£8,200).

According to local press, security noticed a number of items were missing when the venue, in the province of Bari, opened on Wednesday morning. It later emerged the cleaner had handed them over to refuse collectors, thinking it was rubbish left behind by workers who set up the Mediating Landscape exhibition.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-26270260

Signs reading "NOT TRASH- DO NOT THROW AWAY" might be a good idea to prevent this kind of incident.

[CJCRANE]

1. That would be a good experiment...

Dump some trash on the floor in one room, and put the "art" in another room and see who can tell the difference.

[MineralMan]

2. Kinda funny, really.

I consider the incident to be part of the art itself. I hope the artist can see it that way.

[aikoaiko]

3. A natural consequence of being edgy.

[jberryhill]

4. Now we're all ready for CTYankee on Friday!

[longship]

13. You win the thread. At least we'll know one of the answers to the Friday challenge now.

[1000words]

5. Everyone's a critic

Could we send this guy over to Thomas Kinkade's estate to tidy up?

[PoliticAverse]

7. Send him over with a fire extinguisher. n/t

[Warpy]

6. That's the problem with conceptual art

Maybe Murat's real artistry comes from getting rich from insurance settlements paid out.

[KansDem]

8. She may not know art...

...but she knows what needs cleaning.

[bullwinkle428]

9. "His art was once mistakenly disposed of as trash from a museum..."

"He is...the most interesting man in the world!"

[Incitatus]

10. How did they come up with the 13k value for the pile of trash

that some artist arranged? Did someone really pay that much for it?

[Archae]

11. This is what I mean by "art" that is just something thrown together.

This story was also posted in my thread about a "painting" made by putting a couple blotches of paint on a canvas, like my cousin paid a lot of money for.

It's a scam.

[Incitatus]

12. I'm in the wrong business. nt

[Octafish]

14. It musta stuck to my shoe coming out of the bathroom.

Art.

[Lost_Count]

15. Suggestion : Make better art

[JHB]

16. Two words: "staff briefings"

Oh, wait... I see two other words: "cleaning firm". So the cleaner wasn't staff.

Enjoy your outsourcing!

[Archae]

17. Recently I saw an exhibit that is rather different...

The artist creates what looks like piles of junk.

But when a spotlight shines on one side of the pile of junk, the shadow is a very clearly legible object.

I wish I could find the web site where the pictures of these are.

This is art, it takes skill, and creativity.

Putting some scraps of cardboard and pieces of a cookie on the floor is not art.
It's junk dropped on the floor and called "art," any dummy can do it.

[Owl]

18. LOL! I'd probably have thrown it alway too!