The Guardian: An overzealous cleaner in Germany has ruined a piece of modern art worth £690,000 after mistaking it for an eyesore that needed a good scrub. The sculpture by the German artist Martin Kippenberger, widely regarded as one of the most talented artists of his generation until his death in 1997, had been on loan to the Ostwall Museum in Dortmund when it fell prey to the cleaner's scouring pad.
Saturday, November 05, 2011
Overzealous cleaner ruins £690,000 artwork that she thought was dirty
The Guardian: An overzealous cleaner in Germany has ruined a piece of modern art worth £690,000 after mistaking it for an eyesore that needed a good scrub. The sculpture by the German artist Martin Kippenberger, widely regarded as one of the most talented artists of his generation until his death in 1997, had been on loan to the Ostwall Museum in Dortmund when it fell prey to the cleaner's scouring pad.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
18 comments:
Oh my goodness, this is hilarious. I feel bad though because the cleaning woman most definitely lost her job. I was not familiar with the piece of work that she 'cleaned', but I can understand how people can mistake certain modern art for, well, trash. I am not saying it is not art but the other stories of art getting 'cleaned up' is in a way understandable, because a lot of these types of artists do use trash to make their work. Interestingly enough, on this article was a link to another controversy regarding this artist, with a piece of art of his that is a crucified frog. The Pope has labeled this work as blasphemous. Now the Vatican saying that does not surprise me, but Franz Pahl the President of the regional government went on a hunger strike and said that 'Surely this is not a work of art but a blasphemy and a disgusting piece of trash that upsets many people'. I hate it when people say something is or is not art, because that is the great thing about art, that anything could be art, and it doesnt have to be beautiful to be art. Also much of art is supposed to be provocative, so I think the artist, who passed away in '97 would be pleased in some way.
It seems clear that Museums should not outsource there cleaners. They should spend the money to hire staff cleaners and train them on what to clean and what not to clean. This is a simple solution. It is unfortunate that the cleaner in this case thought she was doing something good. This article also leads to another argument...What is art? If I saw a plastic bag full of crumpled paper, I would probably through it away as well. oops!
It's incredibly unfortunate that this happened. This all shows how important proper communication is. If this outsourced cleaning employee had been made aware of the strict regulations on how far away to clean, this probably wouldn't have happened. I'm sure the employee must have been very humiliated about the whole event. But also, I mean, shouldn't some common sense have kicked in when the employee realized that there was a thick layer of paint in the trough and it was more than just a spill or an accident? Or maybe the fact that she was a museum?
I feel terrible for this cleaning woman, but can completely see how she could have mistaken a piece of art for trash, as it seems to happen all the time! I feel that it would be hard to fault people for the mistakes of actually throwing away pieces of art thinking they were trash, when what makes up the artwork is, in fact, trash. I don't like to argue over 'what is art,' because that can lead to all kinds of different conversations, but I agree that if we are in a world that would like to call a trash pile (for example) a work of art, than museums should probably be a bit more careful about who they hire to clean up trash!
It's not my place to judge what is or is not art, especially when it comes to modern art, but if something is being mistaken for something else that just need a good cleaning, something is really wrong. While this is hilarious and then some, it really speaks to what happens when you do not train your people properly and then do not expect the worst to happen. While this kind of thing happens, it still really speaks to the organizational and communication levels of a company.
I agree with Taylor. If the museums wanted to make sure their art work was safe wouldn't they do more then send a memo to an outsourced cleaning company... It would be less stupid if this had been the first case of someone mistaking art for trash, but its not. You would think the museums would have more procedures, rules or something, if not their own in house cleaning with staff they train, in place to protect their assets.
How did... What was she... What!? Is there any way that someone could conceivably mistake that for garbage? For god's sake it's in a MUSEUM. You would think there would be some sort of rule against scrubbing down the sculptures to prevent things like this from happening. Maybe because of this, museums around the world will start briefing people on how they shouldn't clean art, which is really just common sense, but now that one person has screwed up everyone may have to take preventative measures to protect priceless sculptures from the cleaning ladies of the world.
Where the heck was the security guard? How is it that no one noticed her scrubbing down a piece of art in the middle of a museum; I mean, I'm sure it took quite a bit of time to do this. While the other examples of art work being thrown away by accident are shocking and depressing, they are much easier to understand as easy mistakes. There is no way, though, that this sculpture in the middle of a museum with a plaque in front of it could have been mistaken, and it is just sad that this cleaner didn't take a moment to consider that cleaning it would completely alter the piece as a whole.
While this article at first seems funny, I really don't understand how this bad of a mistake could have been made. Really a series of mistakes. Like others have commented there should have been regulations or an info session for the cleaners. It is a museum. Artwork is supposed to be safe and well taken care of in a museum. How could a cleaning person not know that the art was not meant to be cleaned or maybe not even touched. Was it not properly marked or placed? I seriously doubt it could have been mistook for something that needed cleaned if it was out on display in the middle of a exhibit. Maybe the person was just dense, but why did no one stop her? As Sophia said this had to take sometime. Or was the communication so badly organized that no one recognized this as a piece that should not be cleaned. Really this museum needs to get its act together.
This article is kind of absurd. You would think that people might realize that there wouldn't be that much dirt or bags of trash sitting around in a museum. It might be easy to mistake art for trash, but you would think that the museum setting would allow for odd things to take place. People bring up good point that have commented so far. Obviously outsourcing and letting people in that necessarily haven't been told procedures is a bad idea. Wouldn't you also guard the works even when cleaning people are in the building? For recurring events like this you think museums would learn how to protect art from being cleaned or thrown away. We like to assume things, Id like to assume people wouldn't scrub a piece of art, but I guess anything can happen.
this while very funny is also really sad. can you be imagine being the private collector lending a piece of art to a museum only to have it recked because someone didn't recognise it as art in a museum? part of me kinda wonders if you are cleaning in a museum you wouldn't kinda watch out the art. from the pictures i could find the rooms are all white box's or if the outsourced company company took a bit of time and did some sort of orientation for people cleaning. or like a lot of people have said the museum didn't source out or was more careful with the cleaning of the facilities seeing as this has happened before. i am not trying to blame anyone but more trying to blame everyone this accident seems totally absurd but at the same time was totally preventable. i don't know it just seems kinda ridiculous
Agreeing with Taylor here. It's not the cleaner's fault. Look, their job is to clean. Their job is not to decide what is and isn't artwork. When you outsource, this is one of the risks you run. They clean things. If you leave dirty things out, they'll clean them. How are they supposed to know what is dirt, and what is concept art? Here this poor woman toiled over cleaning something extra dirty, and ruined something work about a million dollars. Communication and oversight is clear. Whoever was in charge here really dropped the ball. Oh well.
So...outsourcing a cleaning crew? Maybe...I think that if you were to do that, you would want to regulate the individuals that did the work within your facility. The janitorial staff that works within Purnell are a great example of cleaning crew that are outsourced, but recognize the purpose of the building, and the crazy things that go on within.
And let's talk about communication for a second. Yes, it should be the responsibility of the employer, to specify what needs to be cleaned, and what the employee should let alone or not touch. But it is also the responsibility of the employee. If she KNOWS that she is working in a museum, in which some crazy stuff goes on, she should ask someone if this is something that she should really do. It is also the job of the museum to communicate to the staff, cleaners and patrons about what is artistic content and what is trash. We're seeing faults on three ends of this situation, blame cannot be solely placed on one party.
It may not be something that is immediately obvious, but those employed by museums who are not directly related to the art or artifacts, such as janitors or security staff, should go through rigorous training. Otherwise, they end up like this poor woman and ruin millions of dollars worth of art and upset a lot of people. It's a shame, because this janitor was probably simply very committed to her job, but she did not have the knowledge or training (or commitment to her training) to identify art pieces and stay away from them.
This reminds me of the Mayrieres cave in France, back in the early 1990s or so a French youth group went caving and while they were there decided to clean up some graffiti that they saw on the walls. The problem was, they were pre-historic cave paintings that were severely damaged by the cleaning efforts before someone realized what was going on.
Now I suppose that there's arguments to me made that both examples are probably just as valid as examples of art, but there seems to be a lot less controversy when you call the older works important than when you apply the same tag to modern art.
Wow how bad would you feel if you were the one that ruined someone’s piece of art because you thought that it was trash? I guess that is one way to express your opinion on a piece of art, by throwing it away. I guess in the future the museum will make sure that the cleaning staff is well informed about what they should clean and what they should not. It is unfortunate that because of an honest mistake a piece of art is lost forever.
This reminds me of when I was walking through the Carnegie Mellon museum through the modern art section and seeing a piece up that was quite simply a blank canvas.... Ok mabe he just forgot to actually do the piece. So I do feel bad for this cleaning lady not realize that it was supposed to look that way 0_o granted someone should have actually told her to not wash/clean certain pieces in the gallery
This is so funny and sad at the same time. The cleaning worker had no idea that when she thought she was doing her job on what she thought needed a good cleaning, was actually a famous historic masterpiece. Nobody in particular here i s to blame, just the fact that there was a huge lack of communication taking place. This entire incident could have been prevented by simply informing the employee to not touch the sculpture, or the employee asking to be sure if she is able to touch the unfamiliar object to clean it. Both the employer and the employee are equal to blame for this unfortunate event.
Post a Comment