A 91-year-old woman has been questioned by police in Germany after she mistook a £67,000 artwork for a crossword and filled it out in biro.
Reading-Work-Piece, created by Arthur Kopcke in 1977, "essentially looks like an empty crossword puzzle" and has a caption saying: "Insert words," says the Daily Telegraph.
Nevertheless, in 39 years, nobody had done so - until a group visit to Nuremberg's Neues Museum this week.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The pensioner, whose identity is protected by German laws, told police she was simply following instructions and said the gallery should put up a sign to make it clear it did not want visitors to follow the artist's invitation.
Museum director Eva Kraus said they would now do exactly that.
She added that repairing the work would only cost a few hundred dollars and said the owner, a private collector who has lent the piece to the gallery, was not upset.
"We will let the lady know that the collector took the damage to the work in good humour so she doesn't have a sleepless night," said Kraus.
"We do realise that the old lady didn't mean any harm. Nevertheless, as a state museum couldn't avoid making a criminal complaint," she added. "Also for insurance reasons we had to report the incident to the police."
A police spokesperson said the woman had taken the caption as an invitation to complete the crossword.
Kopcke was a member of the avant-garde Fluxus movement, on which recording artist Beck's grandfather was a member.
-
The Olympic timekeepers keeping the Games on trackUnder the Radar Swiss watchmaking giant Omega has been at the finish line of every Olympic Games for nearly 100 years
-
Will increasing tensions with Iran boil over into war?Today’s Big Question President Donald Trump has recently been threatening the country
-
Corruption: The spy sheikh and the presidentFeature Trump is at the center of another scandal
-
Epstein files topple law CEO, roil UK governmentSpeed Read Peter Mandelson, Britain’s former ambassador to the US, is caught up in the scandal
-
Iran and US prepare to meet after skirmishesSpeed Read The incident comes amid heightened tensions in the Middle East
-
Israel retrieves final hostage’s body from GazaSpeed Read The 24-year-old police officer was killed during the initial Hamas attack
-
China’s Xi targets top general in growing purgeSpeed Read Zhang Youxia is being investigated over ‘grave violations’ of the law
-
Panama and Canada are negotiating over a crucial copper mineIn the Spotlight Panama is set to make a final decision on the mine this summer
-
Why Greenland’s natural resources are nearly impossible to mineThe Explainer The country’s natural landscape makes the task extremely difficult
-
Iran cuts internet as protests escalateSpeed Reada Government buildings across the country have been set on fire
-
US nabs ‘shadow’ tanker claimed by RussiaSpeed Read The ship was one of two vessels seized by the US military
