No good deed goes unpunished.
That's the lesson that we could take away from this latest news out of Germany, that a cleaner destroyed a piece of art worth more than $1 million because it "had a stain."
See, the cleaner, who worked for an art museum in Dortmund, was doing her job. The artwork was on loan from a private collector, so it wasn't normally in the museum. The cleaner was doing her job when she removed what she thought was a stain from Martin Kippenberger's "When It Starts Dripping from the Ceilings." The artwork consisted of a bowl that the artist had discolored by water that ran over bits of wood.
To the untrained eye, it probably looked like a stain. In fact, it was a stain. But the point was that the artist wanted it to be a stain to prove a point, whatever that was.
To the untrained eye, it probably looked like a stain. In fact, it was a stain. But the point was that the artist wanted it to be a stain to prove a point, whatever that was.
At any rate, the artist isn't around anymore to complain. (Kippenberger died in 1997.) He is thought by many experts to be one of the most talented artists in recent German memory. But the private collector who owns the work might do a double-take the next time a museum asks for a public viewing.
No word yet on what kind of discipline that the cleaner might face.
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