http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060301/ap_on_fe_st/gummed_up_art
DETROIT - A 12-year-old visitor to the Detroit Institute of Arts stuck
a wad of gum to a $1.5 million painting, leaving a stain the size of a
quarter, officials say.
ADVERTISEMENT
The boy was part of a school group from Holly that visited the museum
on Friday, officials say. They say he took a piece of Wrigley's Extra
Polar Ice gum out of his mouth and stuck it on Helen Frankenthaler's
"The Bay," an abstract painting from 1963.
The museum acquired the work in 1965 and says it is worth about $1.5
million.
The gum stuck to the painting's lower left corner and did not adhere to
the fiber of the canvas, officials told the Detroit Free Press. But it
left a chemical residue about the size of a quarter, said Becky Hart,
assistant curator of contemporary art.
The museum's conservation department is researching the chemicals in
the gum to decide which solvent to use to clean it. The museum hopes to
make the repair in two weeks and will keep "The Bay" on display in the
meantime, she said.
"Our expectation is that the painting is going to be fine," Hart said.
Holly Academy director Julie Kildee said the boy had been suspended
from the charter school and says his parents also have disciplined him.
"Even though we give very strict guidelines on proper behavior and we
hold students to high standards, he is only 12 and I don't think he
understood the ramifications of what he did before it happened, but he
certainly understands the severity of it now," said Kildee.
___
On the Net:
Detroit Institute of Arts: http://www.dia.org
> am i the first to post this :)
>
> http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060301/ap_on_fe_st/gummed_up_art
No, you weren't, though this actual article is slightly different (same
story though).
I've always found chewing gum a gauche and gross habit, anyway. Singapore
has (had?) the right idea.
Kent
> I don't think he
> understood the ramifications of what he did before it happened, but he
> certainly understands the severity of it now," said Kildee.
Well, if he can't understand the ramifications because he's "only 12,"
why can he understand them now, a day later? Is he 13? Did someone kick
his vandalizing butt?
Ilene B
Amy
Ilene Bilenky <ile...@shore.net> wrote in message
news:ileneb-A80AD7....@comcast.dca.giganews.com...
Just sayin'.
I happened to go to elementary school around the corner from a museum,
with another in walking distance. I seem to remember a "Touchy Tommy"
was made to sit near the entrance with a chaperone and miss all the
fun, or better yet, escorted back to school, and that on away trips,
the same type of "TT" was made to sit on the bus and miss all the fun
(and die of fright slowly, knowing his very annoyed parents would be at
the other end of the ride home). Big, ornate building, cop-like guys in
every room? We knew this stuff was worth a whole lot of money (and our
first trip was in kindergarten). A 12 year old cannot NOT know this
fact.
Bad Jules.
I think you've hit on the problem:
nothing embarrasses a moo.
Once, my brother & I started fighting on the school bus. The bus driver
got out of the bus, knocked on the door & told my mother. She
apologized profusely, told us to get off the bus, told us how we had
embarrassed her, & put us under house arrest for a week.