I’m to scared to put out my rubbish tin these days incase there’s any art thieves around

LONDON: A bag of rubbish was thrown away at London’s Tate gallery after a cleaner assumed it was just that — a bag of rubbish.

But organisers of the Art and the Sixties exhibition confirmed yesterday that the bin-liner filled with newspaper, cardboard and other bits of discarded paper was actually a work of art by the German-born artist Gustav Metzger.

They conceded the contents were not in any way manipulated together other than being in the bag.

A Tate insider said: “A cleaner doing her rounds saw the bag of rubbish on the floor and threw it out with the rest of the trash. It wasn’t roped off. How was she to know what it was supposed to be?”

The bag was retrieved from the skip it had been tossed in, but the 78-year-old artist is believed to have declared it too badly damaged to be returned to the gallery. He replaced it with a new bag.

A Tate spokesman said Metzger had not had to pick up new rubbish to put in the replacement bag but had simply found one that was discarded and used it.

“He doesn’t manipulate what’s in the bag,” the spokesman said.

Asked how the Tate would ensure that no one else confuses a work of art with rubbish, the spokesman said: “We have briefed all staff about this. It’s now covered over at night so it can’t be removed.”

The bag is part of an artwork titled Recreation of the First Public Demonstration of Auto Destructive Art, a copy of a work Metzger produced in 1960. It also features an acid painting in which acid has been painted on to nylon to destroy it — a reflection of the artist’s view of paintings, sculptures and constructions having a finite existence, after which they will be destroyed.

Works by David Hockney and Peter Blake are also displayed in Art and the Sixties, which explores art after 1956, a period of seismic change in British culture.

This is not the first time contemporary art has run into trouble. Three years ago a Damien Hirst work was thrown away because a cleaner thought it was rubbish. The work — bottles, cigarette boxes, full ashtrays and paint tins — was intended to reflect the chaos of an artist’s studio. The work was retrieved from a bin bag and reassembled.