Modern art installation at Italian museum thrown in bin by mistake

Rome – Cleaners at a contemporary art museum in northern Italy have thrown away one of its exhibits, mistaking it for rubbish, its management said on the weekend, promising to quickly reinstate it.

The work by Milan-based artist duo Goldschmied & Chiari – entitled Dove andiamo a ballare questa sera? (Where are we going dancing tonight?) – consisted of a collection of empty wine bottles and party confetti strewn on the floor.

Named after a 1980s nightclub guide written by a leading Italian politician of the time, and meant to symbolise the hedonism of the era, it was cleared away on Saturday after an inauguration event the previous night at the Museion in Bolzano-Bozen, South Tyrol.

In a good-humoured post on Facebook, the Museoin posted pictures of the empty floor and noted that there were “plenty of illustrious precedents”, mentioning famous accidents to works by conceptual artists Marcel Duchamp and Joseph Beuys.

Duchamp’s Bottle Rack was destroyed in 1914 when it was mistaken for garbage and Beuys dirty bathtub installation was scrubbed clean in the 1980s by an overzealous employee.

In an interview with local newspaper Alto Adige, Museion Director Letizia Ragaglia said bottles and other installation material could be recovered from rubbish bags and would be carefully repositioned using photographic evidence.