BY CAMILLE MAESTRACCI
One person’s trash is another’s treasure. So you want to be careful before you clean it.
A cleaning lady from the Ostwall Museum in Germany didn’t realize she was scrubbing away at a modern sculpture by the late German artist Martin Kippenberger. It was valued at over 1-million-dollars. By cleaning the rubber trough placed underneath the wooden tower, she removed the paint that was supposed to represent dried rainwater.
The piece, called When It Starts Dripping From the Ceiling, was on loan to the museum from a private collection. And the museum director tells WDR, that may cause some trouble.
"It's shocking since they gave us those art pieces because they trust us. Now we have been damaged through the actions of the cleaning company, and so is the lender and our own reputation."
The art piece remains in place for now, but it has not yet been decided whether the patina would be restored or left as is. A writer from the Powerline blog says the damage might not be that bad.
“Assuming that anyone notices the difference, might the sculpture be improved by the fact that the trough is now gleaming? Or, better yet, should the museum have billed the incident as politically charged performance art?"
A writer from the Escapist magazine even questions the idea of art itself, since the piece appeared dirty to the cleaner.
“Obviously there's a jumping off point here for a discussion on the validity of art that the layperson instantly perceives as nothing more than a mess to be cleaned with industrial solvents”
Other modern artists have experienced that kind of accident. A couple years ago, English artist Damien Hirst’s leftover-rubbish installation was literally, thrown away, well, with the rubbish. As for this piece -- The Washington Post reports -- insurance adjusters are still assessing the damage.
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