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Beer Can Artwork Accidentally Thrown In Bin By Museum Worker, People Praise Museum’s Reaction
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Beer Can Artwork Accidentally Thrown In Bin By Museum Worker, People Praise Museum’s Reaction

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A Dutch museum recovered an artwork that looks like a pair of empty beer cans after a worker mistakenly threw it in the trash, thinking it was garbage.

The artwork, titled All The Good Times We Spent Together by French artist Alexandre Lavet, was displayed in an elevator at the Lisser Art Museum in Lisse, western Netherlands.

Hand-painted with acrylics, the beer cans symbolize “precious moments with friends” after drinking together and “required a lot of time and effort to create,” the museum said.

Highlights
  • A beer can art piece was mistaken for trash after being displayed in the elevator of the Lisser Art Museum.
  • The Dutch museum managed to retrieve the artwork from the trash after an elevator mechanic assumed the cans had been used.
  • The hand-painted beer cans by French artist Alexandre Lavet are part of the museum's exhibition on food and consumption.
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    Image credits: LAM museum

    “Curator Elisah van den Bergh came back from a short holiday and spitted that the works were missing,” Froukje Budding, a spokesperson for the museum, told Bored Panda via email.

    “She immediately knew that the lift mechanic had something to do with it. He is the only person that can reach the works there.”

    Van den Bergh managed to save the artwork from the trash just before it was taken away.

    “She started some detective work and luckily found the works in a bin bag. Of course, it was a big shock at first,” Budding added.

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    “Miraculously, both cans were found intact. In the end, it is a blessing in an accident.”

    The artwork, titled “All The Good Times We Spent Together,” was created by French artist Alexandre Lavet

    Image credits: Alexandre Lavet

    Image credits: LAM Museum

    The LAM museum had originally exhibited the artwork in the elevator to surprise visitors.

    The cans have since been cleaned and are now temporarily displayed on a traditional plinth at the museum entrance.

    “We wanted to give them their moment in the spotlight. As for where the artwork will be displayed next, that’s yet to be revealed. We enjoy surprising our visitors, so no space is off-limits.”

    The elevator technician was “just doing his job in good faith,” Budding said, explaining that the employee was covering for the museum’s regular technician, who is well acquainted with the building and its exhibits.

    “And, in a way, it’s a testament to the effectiveness of Alexandre Lavet’s art.”

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    The Lisser Art Museum decided to display Lavet’s work in a glass elevator to surprise visitors

    Image credits: lam_museum

    Image credits: Alexandre Lavet

    Although he may not have intended it, the worker’s mishap actually helped spread the word about the painted cans and piqued people’s curiosity about the pieces.

    “We already notice that the intensity of looking at this work of art has grown. People even come especially to the museum to discover these special hand-painted beer cans!”

    According to the French artist’s website, the beer cans “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.”

    The design was created in 2016 when Lavet arrived in Belgium’s capital, where he met friends between 2013 and 2016. In 2017, he decided to redesign them.

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    The museum stated the elevator mechanic who found the cans was “just doing his job in good faith”

    Image credits: lam_museum

    Lavet’s beer cans are part of an international art collection at the Lisser Art Museum based on food and consumption.

    Other pieces include a box of chocolates the size of footballs, a banquet table where wine and champagne slosh over the rims of glasses, and a three-meter-long string of moldy gemstone grapes.

    The exhibition, which invites visitors to “look at ordinary things like food and drink in an extraordinary way,” also features pieces from artists like Yinka Shonibare, Kathleen Ryan, Itamar Gilboa, Raquel van Haver, Ron Mueck, Susan Philipsz, and Michael Raedecker.

    Following the mistake, visitors are specifically coming to the museum to see the painted beer cans

     

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    A post shared by LAM museum (@lam_museum)

    This is not the first time an artist and an outside observer have had differing views on an item displayed in an art gallery or museum.

    In 2023, a hungry art student named Noh Huyn-soo grabbed a banana that had been duct-taped to a wall as part of Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan’s art installation in Seoul.

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    After eating the fruit, the man reattached the banana skin to the wall at the Leeum Museum of Art in the South Korean capital.

    Huyn-soo said he had eaten the banana because he was hungry after skipping breakfast. 

    However, the art student later explained that he thought “damaging a work of modern art could also be [interpreted as an] artwork,” and he had reattached the skin as a “joke.”

    “I thought it would be interesting … isn’t it taped there to be eaten?”

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    Marina Urman

    Marina Urman

    Writer, BoredPanda staff

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    Marina is a journalist at Bored Panda. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, she holds a Bachelor of Social Science. In her spare time, you can find her baking, reading, or watching a docuseries. Her main areas of interest are pop culture, literature, and education.

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    Marina Urman

    Marina Urman

    Writer, BoredPanda staff

    Marina is a journalist at Bored Panda. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, she holds a Bachelor of Social Science. In her spare time, you can find her baking, reading, or watching a docuseries. Her main areas of interest are pop culture, literature, and education.

    Karina Babenok

    Karina Babenok

    Author, BoredPanda staff

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    As a visual editor in the News team, I look for the most interesting pictures and comments to make each post interesting and informative through images, so that you aren't reading only blocks of text. I joined Bored Panda not that long ago, but in this short amount of time I have covered a wide range of topics: from true crime to Taylor Swift memes (my search history is very questionable because of that).In my freetime, I enjoy spending time at the gym, gaming, binging Great British Bake Off and adding yet another tattoo artist that I would love to get a tattoo from to my pinterest board.

    Read less »

    Karina Babenok

    Karina Babenok

    Author, BoredPanda staff

    As a visual editor in the News team, I look for the most interesting pictures and comments to make each post interesting and informative through images, so that you aren't reading only blocks of text. I joined Bored Panda not that long ago, but in this short amount of time I have covered a wide range of topics: from true crime to Taylor Swift memes (my search history is very questionable because of that).In my freetime, I enjoy spending time at the gym, gaming, binging Great British Bake Off and adding yet another tattoo artist that I would love to get a tattoo from to my pinterest board.

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    Papa
    Community Member
    2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I know I'm old and grouchy, but I'm of the opinion that if your art is mistaken for garbage it's not really art.

    Richard Wareham
    Community Member
    2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Artwork my a***! Should have crushed the cans before throwing them away.

    Load More Comments
    Papa
    Community Member
    2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I know I'm old and grouchy, but I'm of the opinion that if your art is mistaken for garbage it's not really art.

    Richard Wareham
    Community Member
    2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Artwork my a***! Should have crushed the cans before throwing them away.

    Load More Comments
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