Take the Money and Run (artwork)

Common card · No. 351747

Take the Money and Run is a piece of artwork by Jens Haaning, commissioned by the Kunsten Museum of Modern Art Aalborg in Denmark in 2021. The artwork consists of an empty canvas, intended to act as a commentary on poor work wages. The Kunsten Museum commissioned Haaning to reproduce two of his earlier pieces in which he represented the annual wages of Austrian and Danish workers by framing piles of real kroner and euro bills, offering the artist with 532,549 Danish kroner worth of bills to use for the reproductions; instead, Haaning delivered two blank canvases to the museum. The museum demanded that Haaning return the money that was intended to be incorporated into the artwork, and in turn triggered a response from the artist: This is only a piece of art if I don't return the money. Kunsten Museum later filed a civil lawsuit to recover the money from Haaning. In September 2023, Haaning was ordered by Copenhagen City Court to repay 492,549kr; the original amount, minus 40,000kr for artist...

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