There are a few tried-and-tested shortcuts to art world celebrity. You could seduce an elderly Swiss billionaire who is owed a few favours by the board of the Whitney. You could get really ripped and post yourself posing topless next to your abstract paintings on Instagram. You could shoot Andy Warhol. But a 52-year-old man in Germany has come up with a new and even more daring scheme: get a job in an art gallery and simply hang your work up next to the Picassos and the Dalis.
The man in question (who hasn’t been named) drilled two holes in the walls of Munich’s Pinakothek der Moderne, where he was working as a technician, and mounted one of his own paintings. This would have been funnier if he had thought he was going to get away with it, that the gallery simply wouldn’t notice. But – unfortunately – it turns out this was yet another art world “stunt”, the kind of situationist prank which has long been exhausted of its power to delight and surprise.
The Pinakothek’s supervisors noticed almost immediately, and the man has since been fired from job and banned from the gallery. According to Munich’s local media, he orchestrated the stunt in an effort to launch his artistic career: the story has certainly attracted a lot of media attention, but the fact he hasn’t been named – and no outlets are including an image of the painting – must be a disappointment.
This isn’t the first time someone has pulled off a similar prank: earlier this year, a member of the public mounted one of her own paintings into a gallery in Bonn, Germany, after smuggling it underneath a giant hoody. After discovering the painting, the gallery tweeted, “We think it’s funny and we want to get to know the artist. So get in touch! There’s no trouble. Word of honour.”
The Pinakothek der Moderne doesn’t seem to find its former employee’s antics quite so funny. Maybe the lesson here is that faking it till you make it will only get you so far. Here’s a “stunt” idea for any budding art-world provocateur: get a job!