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.
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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.
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