News A Danish artist has been ordered to repay a museum after delivering blank canvases (1 Viewer)

[Tickita]

In autumn 2021, a Danish museum opened two large crates to inspect two works it had commissioned from the artist Jens Haaning.

But when museum staff pulled out the canvases — a new work the artist had informed the museum was titled Take the Money and Run -- the canvases were completely blank.

The museum, the Kunsten Museum of Modern Art in Aalborg, had given Haaning a loan of 532,549 Dutch krone, the equivalent of about $76,400. The money was to be used to recreate two earlier works by Haaning that depicted — in actual cold, hard cash affixed to canvas in a frame — the average annual income of a Dane and an Austrian, and the sizable gap between them, reflecting wage differences within the European Union.

Now, Haaning has been ordered by a Copenhagen court to repay most of the money — approximately $70,600 — as well as the equivalent of an additional $11,000 in legal fees.

"I am shocked, but at the same time it is exactly what I have imagined," Haaning told Danish public broadcaster DR on Monday.

"We are not a wealthy museum," Lasse Andersson, the museum's director, told The Guardian in 2021, explaining that the money came from reserves earmarked for the building's upkeep. "We have to think carefully about how we spend our funds, and we don't spend more than we can afford."

Read more below:

https://www.npr.org/2023/09/18/1200192209/danish-artist-jens-haaning-blank-canvases-ordered-to-repay-loan-kunsten

 

[Ahsoka]

So it’s shocking but exactly what he expected but he doesn’t have the money to pay them back? I’m not sure he thought this one through

 

[Tickita]

So it’s shocking but exactly what he expected but he doesn’t have the money to pay them back? I’m not sure he thought this one through

It feels like a horrible prank, down to the name of the piece. Or a statement. I'm trying to figure out where the money went. I don't think blank canvases would eat that entire loan.

 

[Ahsoka]

It feels like a horrible prank, down to the name of the piece. Or a statement. I'm trying to figure out where the money went. I don't think blank canvases would eat that entire loan.

Canvases aren’t cheap oftentimes, but yeah, I don’t think they’re that level of expensive.

 

[Abeamus]

Well they say art is subjective so whose to say this isn't some deeply profound piece

 

[Selfmate]

interesting

 

[Ahsoka]

Okay but the timing is confusing. The canvases were opened in 2021, and in 2021 the museum director said they’re not rich to a newspaper, but it’s news now in 2023? Did court proceedings take that long?

 

[PloryWinxyMYBlnk]

So he tried to troll the museum, but, was legally karma'd. Good!!!!!
Also, what a complete dumb-ass. How does he not know they'd take legal action??
And the canvas name "Take The Money And Run." It was just legal evidence he wanted to dig himself into a ditch / incriminate himself.

And his comment, "I am shocked, but at the same time it is exactly what I have imagined."
Because a business transaction like this was obviously a complete joke to him which he thought he could get away with, right?
What a great way to destroy their trust!!
Since this made the news, now we all know he is a complete piece of crap and scammer.

Canvases aren’t cheap oftentimes, but yeah, I don’t think they’re that level of expensive.

He likely spent the rest of the money on personal BS. I'm 1,000% sure.