In the autumn of 2021, a Danish museum opened a handful of crates to examine the artworks it had commissioned from artist Jens Haaning.
However, when the museum’s staff unveiled the canvases they were startled to find that the canvases were completely devoid of any imagery.
The institution in question, the Kunsten Museum of Modern Art located in Aalborg, had extended a loan of 532,549 Danish krone, equivalent to approximately $76,400, to Haaning. This financial support was intended for the recreation of two of Haaning’s prior works. These earlier pieces had featured actual cold, hard cash affixed to canvas within frames, symbolizing the average annual income of a Dane and an Austrian. They also served as a poignant commentary on the significant wage disparities within the European Union.
What they got instead was a new “work” by Haaning, which he had titled “Take the Money and Run.”
Haaning has now been ordered by the courts to repay a majority of the money, approximately $70,600, as well as the equivalent of an additional $11,000 in legal fees.
In an interview with Danish public radio, the artist said, “I am shocked, but at the same time it is exactly what I have imagined.”
And back in 2021, Lasse Andersson, director of the Kunsten Museum of Modern Art, told The Guardian, “We are not a wealthy museum. We have to think carefully about how we spend our funds, and we don’t spend more than we can afford.”
The museum did go on to show the pieces that Haaning provided them.
The Kunsten Museum’s curators claimed that they understood and validated the meaning behind Haaning’s work. The museum states in its exhibition guide, “Haaning’s new work Take the Money and Run is also a recognition that works of art, despite intentions to the contrary, are part of a capitalist system that values a work based on some arbitrary conditions. Even the missing money in the work has a monetary value when it is called art and thus shows how the value of money is an abstract quantity.”
Jens Haaning claims that he does not have the funds to pay the museum back.