Cunning artists: How to smuggle works into the museum without asking – Culture

Wait forever or until death until you are finally discovered? Not an option for certain artists. Instead of giving up their careers, they smuggle their art into the museum. A curated selection.

Munich Pinakothek: Fatal holes

It couldn’t last long, because attentive supervision quickly discovered the intruder: the work of art that a technical employee smuggled into the Munich Pinakothek der Moderne in February. The freelance artist wanted to finally make it big with the work. After all, it measures – that’s all we know about it – 60 by 120 cm.

The employee has now been fired. His action still bothers him: In order to be able to display his art, he drilled two nails into a wall. This did not lead to the desired breakthrough, but rather to problems with the justice system: the police are investigating damage to property.

National Museum Wroclaw: An artist didn’t want to wait for fame

Of course my acacia has to go to the museum, said Polish art student Andrzej Sobiepan. In 2011 he hung the picture of a green leaf in the National Museum in Wroclaw for contemporaries. He couldn’t wait for fame: “I decided that I didn’t want to wait 30 or 40 years until my works could be seen in a place like this,” he told national TV. His campaign became a mini media sensation.

Legend:

Took the action with humor: the National Museum in Wrocław.

IMAGO / Pond5 Images

The picture, which was discovered by security guards, was still taken down. The museum director, delighted by the “funny artistic happening,” found a temporary new place for the work in the museum café. It was then auctioned off for charity. A ruse that paid off.

Bundeskunsthalle Bonn: What is this stranger doing there?

But the curators were looking! When the exhibition “Who We Are,” a show on the subject of migration, was dismantled at the Bundeskunsthalle Bonn in autumn 2023, a painting appeared that no one knew: a naked, black-haired woman on a green background. The Kunsthalle was more interested than irritated and looked for the artist on X – with the nice note: “There’s no trouble. Word of honor.”

Legend:

Undiscovered hanging: The foreign picture in the Bundeskunsthalle Bonn was only noticed when the exhibition was dismantled.

IMAGO / Bonn.digital

The artist, Danai Emmanouilidis from Cologne, got in touch. She smuggled the work into the hall under a giant hoodie and hung it up using double-sided adhesive tape. All’s well that ends well: The picture was auctioned off for at least 2,800 euros and for a good cause.

Guggenheim Museum Bilbao: The “Antichrists of Art”

Legend:

Louise Bourgeois’ spider didn’t make it into the Guggenheim Museum. The couple’s work does – even if only for a short time.

IMAGO / ABACAPRESS

It almost sounds cheesy. Over 20 years ago, a young artist couple smuggled a work into the large Guggenheim in Bilbao that showed a spiral winding around a heart. They stuck the “Whirlwind of Love” – the title of the work – on the wall.

With the campaign, the couple wanted to show that anyone can be an artist if they showcase their art correctly. Can the stage name also lead to fame and honor? The two called themselves “antichrists of art”.

And again and again: Banksy

He is certainly not undiscovered, but he is probably the greatest unknown in the art world: Banksy. He also smuggles his works always go to the museum. His smiley version of Mona Lisa, which he installed next to the somewhat serious original in the Louvre, was funny. He also placed a rat – stuffed and equipped with sunglasses and a spray can – in the Natural History Museum in London in 2004, with the graffiti “Our time will come” above it.