An art exhibit that looks like two empty beer cans sitting on the ground was accidently dumped by a mechanic who thought the cans were actually garbage.
From a far, French artist Alexandre Lavet’s ‘All The Good Times We Spent Together’ exhibit looks like ordinary littered beer cans.
It takes a closer look to realize that these cans are hand-painted aluminum pieces that took a surprising amount of time, energy and detail to create.
But an unsuspecting mechanic working at the LAM museum in Lisse, Netherlands did not suspect the ultra-realistic crushed cans needed any further analysis.
So when he picked them up off the elevator floor and tossed them in a garbage pale, he thought he was doing a good deed and helping keep the museum clean.
The exhibit was later retrieved by curator Elisah van den Bergh just moments before disaster – the trash was about to be taken out.
‘We have now put the work in a more traditional place on a plinth so it can rest after its adventure,’ museum spokesperson Froukje Budding told The Guardian.
She also said that artwork is commonly displayed in unconventional places around the museum to ‘surprise’ visitors. The cans will probably be relocated multiple times.
LAM director Sietske van Zanten told The Guardian: ‘By displaying artworks in unexpected places, we amplify this experience and keep visitors on their toes.’
The artwork was ultimately saved and unharmed by the mix-up. The mechanic shared a similar fate.
Budding said there were ‘no hard feelings’ towards towards the newly hired staff member.
‘He was just doing his job,’ she said.
Lavet’s ‘All The Good Times We Spent Together’ exhibit was born in 2016, according to his online portfolio.
The website reads: ‘These paintings are a tribute to Brussels streets, artists’ studios, friends’ flats, parties, exhibition openings at galleries and artist-run spaces, and to this common and familiar object who brings people and friends together.
‘This packaging design coincides with the artist’s arrival in Brussels where he met new friends between 2013 and 2016. The can’s visual has been redesigned in 2017 and valuable friendships have been established from then on.’
The minimalist artist has shared variations of this exhibit in museums across the Netherlands and Berlin.
His beer can exhibition is not the first piece of art to be mindlessly mistreated or misunderstood.
Last year, a South Korean art student who needed a snack ate a banana taped to the wall of Seoul’s Leeum Museum of Art.
This oddly-placed piece of fruit was actually part of an exhibit created by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan.
After the student finished eating, he made sure to tape the banana peel in the same place on the wall he took it from.