Take the Money and Run: Artist ordered to repay Danish gallery for $120k blank canvas stunt

'The work is that I have taken their money,' said artist Jens Haaning of the Aalborg art museum. Photo / Justyn Warner, Unsplash

Controversial Danish artist Jens Haaning has been ordered to repay DK500,000 ($120,000) to a museum in Aalborg after supplying two empty canvasses, naming the project: “Take the Money and Run”.

The Kunsten Museum Aalborg provided Haaning with cash for the concept work. They claimed the banknotes were material for the two pieces of art, which had been pitched as a statement on wages in Denmark and Austria.

In September 2021 the artwork was unveiled but the money was nowhere to be seen.

“The work is that I have taken their money,” the provocateur told public broadcaster Danmarks Radio.

Now, after two-years trying to decipher if it was “art or robbery”, a court in Copenhagen has ordered the provocative artist to give back the money.

The cash had been put up by the museum and an Austrian-Danish investment bank, inspired by the 2008 financial crisis. Part of the agreement was that the half-a-million in notes would be returned, at the end of the exhibition. However, Haaning made it clear that was unlikely to happen.

“Why should we show a work that is about Denmark and Herning [a city in the central Jutland peninsula] 11 years ago, or one that is about Austria’s relationship with a bank 14 years ago?” the artist told DR, airing doubts as to whether the money would ever be returned.

“Hey, thanks!” he said.

The piece was interpreted as a protest on living wages in Denmark. Others saw the blank canvas as bare robbery.

“The breach of contract is part of the work,” was Haaning’s labyrinthine defence, which kept lawyers tied up for 24 months.

The KUNSTEN Museum of Modern Art Aalborg had given Haaning $120,000 in notes to use as part of the artwork.

On Monday Haaning was ordered to refund DK492,549 - the half-a-million minus the artists’ commission and exhibition costs of about $1800.

Lasse Andersson, the Aalborg gallery director, said he now saw the funny side of the stunt, telling the BBC after the stress caused to him and his staff, they could now “have a laugh” about it.

Haaning has said he will not challenge the court decision.

“It has been good for my work, but it also puts me in an unmanageable situation where I don’t really know what to do,” told TV2 Nord following the court ruling.

The artist said that he did not worry too much about the gallery or its financial backers, saying they made “much, much more” than DK500,000 through the two-year publicity coup.

“I encourage others who have just as miserable working conditions as me to do the same,” Haaning told broadcaster P1.

“If they are being asked to give money to go to work, then take the money and run.”

Kunsten in northern Denmark describes itself as “a living art museum“ and houses over 4000 works, mostly by Danish from post-1900.

The 1972 gallery building and gardens were designed by Finnish architects Alvar Aalto, his wife Elissa. It attracts over 30,000 visitors a year.

Financial trickery and the thin line between robbery and publicity have been hot topics for the art world this year.

In May an $180,000 artwork consisting of a banana duct-taped to a wall, was eaten by a visiting student.

His excuse was, he was hungry.

The piece named The Comedian by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan was on loan to the Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul.