Dutch Museum Artwork Found In Bin After Technician Thought It Was Garbage

A mechanic at the LAM museum in the Netherlands was left embarrassed after he thought a priceless artwork was garbage and dumped it in the dustbin. The art in conversation here was by French artist Alexandre Lavet called ‘All the good times we spend together’. It resembles two cans of a popular Belgian brand of lager. While the museum hasn’t disclosed the worth of art, they claim it’s far too expensive to end up in garbage.

The art samples at the LAM museum are kept in different places to surprise visitors with their unique presentation of priceless art. One such artwork was kept near the stairs. A Dutch lift engineer was the new hire on the site at the LAM museum in Lisee. After he spotted two aluminium beer cans on the top of the museum’s glass lift shaft, the Dutch mechanic perceived them as garbage and dumped them in the dustbin.

His suspicion of the cans as garbage was confirmed after he saw a receipt for the beers from a supermarket on Rue Berthelot of Brussels sitting alongside the beer cans. So when he picked them up off the elevator floor and tossed them in a garbage bin, he thought he was doing a good deed and helping keep the museum clean. The artwork in conversation was hand-painted cans with the help of acrylic paint, which gives the illusion that these are old beer cans that have been thrown away after drinking.

Fortunately, by the time, the commotion broke out in the museum, the curator noticed it missing and started looking for it. Finally, it was found in the garbage can. The artwork was eventually “miraculously” found in a rubbish bag put out for collection and was “intact after some cleaning”, according to the museum. Despite the mess-up, the museum’s director made it clear that the mistake was innocent. Sietske van Zanten said: “He did his job to the best of his ability. On a positive note, it is a compliment to [the] artist, Alexandre Lavet,” added Sietske van Zanten.

The other pieces by Alexandre Lavet are priced between an unbelievable £670 (Rs 73,508) and £2,095 (Rs 2.29 lakh).