Artwork resembling empty beer cans accidentally thrown in bin by Dutch museum mechanic

THE HAGUE – A mechanic at a Dutch museum tried to be helpful and chucked what looked like two empty beer cans in the rubbish bin.

It turned out it was an art exhibit, which had to be saved by the museum.

The artwork, titled All the Good Times We Spent Together, was created in 1988 by French artist Alexandre Lavet, who has described his style as “mixing minimalism, contextual and conceptual art legacies”.

It was displayed at Lam, a museum dedicated to food and eating in Lisse, Netherlands, a town roughly 40km south-west of Amsterdam.

The artwork was not merely composed of two used cans, as the museum took pains to point out on its webpage.

“If you look closely, you will discover that the dented and empty cans are hand-painted,” the museum said in describing the work. “Every detail has been painted onto the cans with precision, using acrylic paint.”

It added, rather plaintively: “Lavet’s piece required a lot of time and effort to create.”

The cans were exhibited inside the museum’s glass lift shaft, designed to look “as if they were left behind by construction workers”, according to the museum’s website.

But their artistic value was lost on a mechanic, who saw them displayed in a lift and threw them in the rubbish bin.

Ms Froukje Budding, a spokeswoman for the LAM museum, told AFP that artworks are often left in unusual places – hence the display in a lift.

“We try to surprise the visitor all the time,” she said.

Curator Elisah van den Bergh returned from a short break and noticed that the cans had vanished.

She recovered them from a bin bag just in the nick of time as they were about to be thrown out.

“We have now put the work in a more traditional place on a plinth so it can rest after its adventure,” Ms Budding told AFP.

She stressed there were “no hard feelings” towards the mechanic, who had just started at the museum.

He had been covering for the museum’s regular technician, who was well acquainted with the building and its exhibits, according to its website.

“He was just doing his job,” she said.

Museum director Sietske van Zanten 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,” added Ms Van Zanten.

With this in mind, the cans are unlikely to stay on their traditional plinth for long, said Ms Budding.

“We need to think hard about a careful place to put them next,” she told AFP.