Cleaner wipes away $1 million artwork
November 7th, 2011 - 10:12 pm ICT by Aishwarya BhattDortmund, Nov 7 (THAINDIAN NEWS) A cleaner wiped away $1 million worth of artwork at a German museum. The Ostwall Museum told reporters that the cleaner thought the artwork was a mess and completely wiped it off beyond recognition.
The museum said the destroyed artwork is valued at 800,000 euros ($1.07 million). The piece was made by Martin Kippenberger and is called When It Starts Dripping From the Ceiling.
A spokesperson for the museum said the art piece was loaned to the museum by a private collector. The damage was only detected late last month. The museum said the project has been completely destroyed and there is no way it could be restored. The cleaner virtually scrubbed the surface until it got to the canvas.
The spokesperson said that, “It is now impossible to return it to its original state.”
It is not clear how the cleaner got so close to the painting. The museum said it is a policy for cleaners of the museum to stay 8 inches away from all the artworks. This is not the first time that a valuable artwork has been destroyed by a cleaner.
In 1986, a cleaner at the Academy of Fine Arts in Duesseldorf destroyed Joseph Beuys’ “Grease Stain” which was valued at more than half a million dollars.
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Tags: 1 million, academy of fine arts, art piece, artwork, artworks, canvas, duesseldorf, german museum, grease stain, half a million, joseph beuys, martin kippenberger, million dollars, painting, private collector, spokesperson