Back in 2007 (and again in 2010), artist Jens Haaning created pieces that visually compared the annual incomes of an Austrian and a Dane using real currency. More recently, a gallery asked him to recreate those works, and he agreed. They paid him around $4,000, and also fronted him approximately $84,000 to use in the piece itself.
But when the museum in Aalborg opened the box that Haaning had shipped, the cash was missing from the two glass frames and the artwork’s title had been changed.
The new name? “Take the Money and Run”. It’s a hell of a move. But rather than a simple act of theft, Haaning is stating that this is, in fact, art.
“The work of art is that I took their money,” Haaning told broadcaster DR.
I don’t know how that sounds in the original Danish, but the translation to English is simply fantastic.
Previously in amusing performance art: Scoot Over, Tilda Swinton