A Danish artist has been ordered to return close to 70,000 Euro to a museum after only turning in two blank canvases.
Jens Haaning had been sent the money by the Kunsten Museum in Aalborg, which believed he was planning to embed the banknotes in two glass frames as a commentary on wages in Denmark and Austria. Instead, he sent back the blank frames under a new title: "Take the Money and Run".
The move sparked a lengthy legal battle, which culminated in a Copenhagen court ordering the 58-year-old to return almost 70.000 Euro. The court ruled that refund was equal to the sum minus the artist's fee and cost of the canvases.
"The work is that I have taken their money," Haaning told Danish broadcaster DR in 2021, adding he had decided to make an art piece about his own work situation. And I encourage other people who have just as miserable working conditions as me to do the same. If they are sitting in some crap job and not getting paid and are actually being asked to give money to go to work, take off with the cash and run away".
Anna Melnykova, "Palace of Labor (palats praci), architector I. Pretro, 1916", shot with analog Canon camera, 35 mm Fuji film in March 2022.
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