Kitty's Corner

She meant well, the cleaning Assistant at Ostwall Museum in Dortmund, Germany.

She removed a faint mark of paint from deceased artist Martin Kippenberger's sculpture "Wenn's anfang durch die Decke zu Tropfen" (When it starts dripping from the ceiling).



Problem is that the paint dollops were put on the tray deliberately by the artist. He wanted to represent a dried puddle of rainwater.



A spokesman for the museum says that the sculpture is ruined, and since the artist is dead it cannot be reconstructed. The sculpture, which was loaned to the museum by a private collector, is insured for six million dollars.

The spokesman emphasizes that the cleaning staff had been specifically told to stay at least 20 centimetres from the exhibited works of art, but it is unclear whether the zealous cleaning assistant received the message.

It is actually not the first time cleaning staff in museums have been a wee bit eager:

In 1986 a cleaner removed what he assumed was a stain or two on an expensive piece by the much revered Joseph Beuys, exhibited in Düsseldorf. The piece was a dirty bathtub, The cleaner just went ahead and cleaned it.

In 2004, a cleaner threw a bag containing rubbish (part of an artwork created by the German Gustav Metzger) in the trash, believing that it was waste. It wasn't. The artist declared the piece ruined, and created a new bag full of rubbish to replace it. Ironically, the exhibit was designed with the intention of demonstrating the finite existence of art.

In 2001, Damien Hirst experienced something similar in a gallery in London. His work included a collection of empty bottles, dirty ashtrays, paint tins and coffee cups. He wanted to illustrate the chaos of an artist's studio. It all ended up in the garbage container. The cleaner : "As soon as I clapped eyes on it I sighed because there was so much mess. I didn't think for a second that it was a work of art - it didn't look much like art to me. So I cleared it all into bin-bags and dumped it."

Bravo! So I am not the only one who doesn't know about art.