Art Or Heist? A Danish Artist Took $84,000 And Sent A Museum 2 Blank Canvases

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Visitors view a blank canvas that is part of «Take the Money and Run, by Jens Haaning, at the Kunsten Museum of Modern Art in Aalborg, Denmark. The piece is part of an exhibition called Work It Out, which explores people’s relationship with work.





Niels Fabæk/Kunsten Museum of Modern Art



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Niels Fabæk/Kunsten Museum of Modern Art





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Jens Haaning’s artwork «Take the Money and Run is seen in the Kunsten Musem of Modern Art. The empty canvas was meant to hold thousands of dollars in cash — but the artist chose to hang on to the money.





Niels Fabaek/Kunsten Museum of Modern Art



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Niels Fabaek/Kunsten Museum of Modern Art




Jens Haaning’s artwork «Take the Money and Run is seen in the Kunsten Musem of Modern Art. The empty canvas was meant to hold thousands of dollars in cash — but the artist chose to hang on to the money.


Niels Fabaek/Kunsten Museum of Modern Art


Artist urges the public: take money, run


Haaning told P1 Morgen that he decided to keep the money after rejecting the idea of reproducing art that was more than a decade old. Instead, he said, he wanted to create a work that dealt immediately with his own work situation.

«I encourage other people who have just as miserable working conditions as me to do the same, he said, according to a translation from Artnet. «If they are sitting on some s*** job and not getting money and are actually being asked to give money to go to work, they should take the money and run, he told the radio program.

Haaning says he would have had to pay 25,000 kroner (around $2,900) to recreate his art work — an unfair burden, he told Danish radio. But Andersson says the museum’s contract provides up to 6,000 euros, or nearly $7,000, for Haaning’s work expenses. Under the agreement, the artist also receives a fee of 10,000 kroner, plus a «viewing fee determined by the government.


The museum isn’t taking legal action — yet


Haaning signed a contract with the Kunsten, promising to deliver the artwork and to return the $84,000. The artist now faces a deadline to give the museum its money back on Jan. 16, when the work exhibition closes. The museum says it’s talking with him about that deadline; it also acknowledges that Haaning did produce a provocative piece of work.

«It wasn’t what we had agreed on in the contract, but we got new and interesting art from Haaning, Andersson said.

Haaning is a well-known artist in Denmark, where his attention-grabbing projects have included rendering the Dannebrog, Denmark’s red and white national flag, in green, according to public broadcaster DR. He also «moved a car dealer and a massage clinic into exhibition buildings, the news agency says.