What's Art Anyway?

A Danish artist who was was given a pile of money by a museum with which to create a piece of artwork, submitted two empty canvases - titled "Take the Money and Run." Jens Haaning was given the equivalent of nearly $84,000 in Danish kroner and euro bank notes by the Kunsten Museum of Modern Art in Aalborg.

For its exhibition on labor conditions and money, entitled "Work It Out" that opened on September 24, the museum commissioned him to recreate two of his earlier pieces, which featured bank notes attached to a canvas representing the average annual wage in Denmark and Austria. As well as lending him the notes, the museum also paid him 25,000 kroner ($3,900) for the work. But when museum officials received the completed artworks, they were blank. "The artwork is that I have taken the money," Haaning told a radio show on the P1 channel that is part of Danish broadcaster DR this week. He declined to say where the money was.

Haaning, who is known as a provocateur, said the artwork represented his current work situation. "I encourage others who have just as miserable working conditions as I to do the the same," Haaning told P1. "If they are being asked to give money to go to work, then take the money and run." The museum says Haaning has broken the agreement on how to use the money. However, it has not yet decided whether to report Haaning to the police if the money is not returned before the exhibition ends in January. Haaning, however, denies having committed a crime and insists he did produce a work of art.

A Banksy artwork that sensationally self-shredded just after it sold for $1.4 million is up for sale again - at several times the previous price. Auctioneer Sotheby's said that "Love is in the Bin" will be offered at a sale in London on October 14. The piece has a pre-sale estimate of 4 million pounds to 6 million pounds ($5.5 million to $8.3 million). It consists of a half-shredded canvas bearing a spray-painted image of a girl reaching for a heart-shaped red balloon. Then known as "Girl With Balloon," the work was sold at Sotheby's in October 2018. Just as an anonymous European buyer made the winning bid, a hidden shredder embedded in the frame by Banksy whirred to life, leaving half the canvas hanging from the frame in strips. The buyer decided to go through with the purchase - a decision that would be vindicated if the picture achieves its estimated price. Alex Branczik, Sotheby's chairman of Modern and Contemporary Art, described "Love is in the Bin" as "the ultimate Banksy artwork and a true icon of recent art history." "Love is in the Bin" was born of the most spectacular artistic happening of the 21st century," he said. "When 'Girl With Balloon' 'self-destructed' in our saleroom, Banksy sparked a global sensation that has since become a cultural phenomenon." The artwork is traveling and is going on public display in London, Hong Kong, Taipei, and New York ahead of its sale this month.