The blank robbery occurred after the Kunsten Museum of Modern Art in Aalborg asked Danish artist Jens Haaning to re-create two of his prior works: 2010’s “An Average Danish Annual Income” and “An Average Austrian Annual Income,” first exhibited in 2007. Those politically charged pieces used actual banknotes to showcase the average incomes of citizens of Denmark and Austria, respectively.The reboots were slated to appear in “Work it Out,” a current exhibition on the role of artists in the labor market, according to ArtNet. Along with an undisclosed compensation for the project, the institution lent Haaning $84,000 — plus offered an additional 6,000 euros (about $7,000), if needed — to be displayed in the opus itself.
Per the contract, that amount would have to be returned to the museum at the end of the exhibition on Jan. 16, 2022.But the curators first suspected something was amiss upon receiving an email from Haaning that said he had changed the artwork’s name to “Take the Money and Run.” Indeed, when museum staffers opened up the box containing Haaning’s contributions, they discovered two blank canvases — while the cash had disappeared entirely.
“The money had not been put into the work,” museum director Lasse Andersson told CBS News.
Haaning said he had a good reason for literally drawing a blank.
“The work is that I have taken their money,” the nada-Vinci told Danish radio program “P1 Morgen” last week of the irreverent performance piece and mega-minimalist work. “It’s not theft. It is a breach of contract, and breach of contract is part of the work.”
(...) New York Post
