Art gallery employee sacked for putting own work on display

An art gallery employee was sacked from his job after hanging his own painting in the museum.

With some of the art on display, it can be difficult to determine what has been produced by a genuine artist and what is slightly more questionable.

A German art museum worker and aspiring artist was banking on nobody noticing his artwork after taking the opportunity to have his time in the limelight.

In a moment of arguable genius, the 51-year-old smuggled his work into the Pinakothek der Moderne art museum and installed the 60cm x 120cm artwork on an empty white wall, as his role provided him out-of-hours access to the gallery space.

The Munich-based museum confirmed it has let go of the man from its technical services team after discovering his painting in the modern and contemporary art section of the gallery.

According to the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, he had done it “in the hope of achieving his artistic breakthrough”.

A spokesperson for the museum told the Guardian: “The employee considers himself as an artist and most likely saw his role in the museum’s installation team as a day-job to support his true calling.”

The incident occurred on 23 February but was not made public until recently. The museum explained the artwork had been installed in the early hours of the morning and was noticed by other staff.

“The decision was made to keep the picture on display while the gallery was open and take it down after its closing time at 6pm”, the spokesperson said.

The employee’s contract was terminated and he is banned from the premises. There is also a police investigation ongoing over the two holes that were drilled in order to hang the image, after the museum filed a complaint for wilful damage to property.

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