This past February, a 12 year old student stuck an piece of chewed up gum to the surface of the well loved Helen Frankenthaler painting, "The Bay".
While the gum did not adhere to the canvas surface, the painting, reportedly worth $1.5 million, was stained by the dollop of gum, leaving a residual mark about an inch and a half in diameter. Museum conservators are currently investigating the best procedures for removing a quarter sized chemical schmear of kid spit.
The boy was not identified, but was said to be a part of a school group that had visited the Detroit Institute of the Arts, where the 1963 Frakenthaler painting is displayed in the gallery. It is safe to assume, however, that he was probably sober.
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- Helen Frankenthaler, The Bay, oil on canvas, 1963 – illustrated here in a lithograph poster for Los Angeles County Museum of Art advertising a retrospective of the artist’s work.
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Detroit Institute of the Arts
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Detroit Institute of the Arts
Illustration found via Google.
