Danish artist Jens Haaning is facing a court order to repay 492,549 kroner to the Kunsten Museum in Aalborg, after providing them with two untouched canvases for his artwork called “Take the Money and Run” on 2021. The project, intended to comment on salaries in Denmark. and Austria, it did not go as the museum had planned. Instead of embedding the bills in the art, Haaning handed over the blank canvases and brazenly declared, “The job is, I took their money.”
The museum originally demanded a full refund of 534,000 kroner ($76,539), a sum Haaning refused to pay. After legal deliberations, a court in Copenhagen ruled that Haaning must return the aforementioned amount, deducting from the total the artist’s fee and installation costs.
Lasse Andersson, director of the museum, expressed his initial amusement at seeing the naked canvases in 2021, choosing to display them. Recalling his reaction, he said: “I laughed because it was so humorous.” He shared this sentiment during a BBC Newsday interview in 2021.
After the court’s decision, Haaning remarked that he will not challenge it further. While acknowledging the impact of the situation on his work and the challenge it presents, he also noted that the museum benefited significantly from the media attention the event attracted, earning “much, much more” than the your initial investment.
This article is sourced from and written by AI.
Track and stay informed about AI-generated news: