In a controversy that marked a meeting point of art and legalities, Danish artist Jens Haaning has been ordered by the court to refund nearly 500,000 kroner ($72,000; £58,000) to the Kunsten Museum in Aalborg, after his unconventional submission to an art project – two blank canvasses.
Named “Take the Money and Run,” the art project for 2021 was conceived with an expectation that Haaning would incorporate hundreds of thousands of kroner worth of banknotes into two unique works of art. However, the artist chose to flout this vision, offering in its place two untouched canvasses.
Explaining his deviation to dr.dk, Haaning stated, “The work is that I have taken their money.”
The art project intended to drive a critical view on wage patterns prevalent in Denmark and Austria. The artist’s audacious move led the museum to request a refund of nearly 534,000 kroner. The artist, however, remained steadfast in his refusal.
Consequently, this led to a drawn-out legal skirmish, which finally resulted in the Copenhagen court decreeing on Monday that Haaning must reimburse the museum an amount of 492,549 kroner.
This mandated amount, the court clarified, represents the original funding provided by the museum, excluding the artist’s fees and costs of installation.
The museum’s director, Lasse Andersson, expressed that he responded to the initial discovery of the blank canvasses in 2021 with laughter and decided to exhibit the pieces nonetheless.
Reflecting on the incident, Andersson said to the BBC’s Newsday programme in 2021, “He stirred up my curatorial staff and he also stirred me up a bit, but I also had a laugh because it was really humoristic.”
Following the court’s judgement, Haaning told dr.dk he had no intentions of escalating the incident further, remarking, “It has been good for my work, but it also puts me in an unmanageable situation where I don’t really know what to do.”
He further hinted on TV2 Nord, a certain ironical twist— the museum had eventually ended up profiting “much, much more” from the generated publicity surrounding the furore than what it had initially invested.
