#Art #Apparently #Empty #Frames
When is art not really art, even if an artist says it is? That philosophical question became a legal question in Denmark, and it did not go well for the artist.
A Copenhagen court ordered a Danish artist to repay the Kunsten Museum of Modern Art, Aalborg, Denmark, nearly $72,000 after he delivered two empty frames in lieu of a commissioned artwork in 2021. The artist, Jens Haaning, claimed the empty frames were a conceptual piece, cheekily titled “Take the Money and Run.”
And although Haaning tried to do just that, he couldn’t outrun the long arm of the law.
The museum had loaned Haaning, about $84,000 to recreate a 2007 sculpture titled “An Average Danish Annual Income,” in the form of banknotes affixed to a canvas.
Courtesy Kunsten Museum of Modern Art
It wasn’t until Haaning’s “art” was unpacked that staff realized he had sent two empty frames. Nevertheless, the museum displayed the works. When the artist refused to repay the borrowed money after the show was taken down, as his contract had demanded, the museum decided to take legal action.
After a lengthy legal squabble, the court ruled in September that Haaning must refund the museum $71,000, the amount he had been given by the museum, minus the artist’s fee and cost of mounting.
Courtesy of Kunsten Museum of Modern Art
Despite the legal setback, Haaning defended his artistic interpretation of the contract.
“The work is that I have taken their money,” Haaning told a Danish radio program. “It’s not theft. It is a breach of contract, and breach of contract is part of the work.”
That kind of logic might play well in art circles, but in a court of law? Not so much.
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