Danish artist told to repay museum €67,000 euros after turning in blank canvasses

A Danish artist has been ordered to return nearly 500,000 kroner ($72,000; £58,000) to a museum after giving it two blank canvasses for a project he named Take the Money and Run, according to the BBC.

The Kunsten Museum had intended for Jens Haaning to embed the banknotes in two pieces of art in 2021.

A court has now ordered him to return the cash, which is close to $72,000, but keep some for expenses.

Museum director Lasse Andersson said that he had laughed out loud when he first saw the two blank canvasses in 2021, and decided to show the works anyway.

“He stirred up my curatorial staff and he also stirred me up a bit, but I also had a laugh because it was really humoristic,” the museum’s director, Lasse Andersson, told the BBC’s Newsday programme in 2021.

He said the museum had made “much, much more” money than what it invested thanks to the publicity surrounding the affair.