A museum in Holland has had a lucky escape after a member of staff mistakenly threw a piece of artwork in the bin.
The artwork, entitled All The Good Times We Spent Together by French artist Alexandre Lavet, is made up of two beer cans that have been intricately hand-painted and placed in a lift against a wall.
It was here that they were spotted by the keen worker who had only recently been employed and mistook them for rubbish that needed collecting.
Froukje Budding, a spokesperson for the LAM museum in Lisse, western Netherlands, told AFP that artworks are often left in unusual places – hence the display in a lift.
She said: “We try to surprise the visitor all the time.”
Luckily, a curator who had been away on holiday noticed their absence on her return and recovered them in a bin bag just as they were about to be thrown away.
The curator Elisah van den Bergh said: “We have now put the work in a more traditional place on a plinth so it can rest after its adventure.”
All seems to be forgiven for the worker, who is unlikely to make such a mistake again, with Van den Bergh stressing there are “no hard feelings”.
Sietske van Zanten, the museum’s director, said: “Our art encourages visitors to see everyday objects in a new light.
“By displaying artworks in unexpected places, we amplify this experience and keep visitors on their toes.
“With this in mind, the cans are unlikely to stay on their traditional plinth for long. We need to think hard about a careful place to put them next.”
It is not the first time artwork has been accidentally destroyed by museum employees. In 2011, an overzealous cleaner ruined a piece called When It Starts Dripping From The Ceiling after mistakenly thinking that it needed to be scrubbed clean.
