[CPProt.net] FW: Guardian Unlimited | Arts news | Back to school for binmen whothought modern art was a load of old rubbish

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 Back to school for binmen who thought modern art was a load of old rubbish

Ben Aris in Berlin
Thursday January 13, 2005

To the dustmen of Frankfurt, they were a mess that needed to be cleared from
the streets of their spotless city. The yellow plastic sheets were swiftly
scooped up, crushed and burned.

But the diligence of the rubbish collectors was little consolation to the
city's prestigious art academy, which is now ruing the loss of an important
work.

Unknown to the binmen, the sheets were part of a city-wide exhibition of
modern sculpture by Michael Beutler, a graduate of Frankfurt's Städel art
school.

Thirty of the dustmen are now being sent to modern art classes to try to
ensure that the same mistake never happens again.

The head of Frankfurt's sanitation department, Peter Postleb, took
responsibility for the destruction of the sculpture, saying that confusing
the plastic sheets with rubbish was an easy mistake to make. He thought they
were abandoned building materials.

Mr Postleb said he noticed the pile as he was driving through the city. It
was raining, which didn't make things any easier, he said.

"As the weather was bad I thought it was construction workers who had dumped
their materials on the street and called my people to come and take it
away," he said.

"I didn't recognise it as art and there was no sign or anything to show it
was art."

He only realised his mistake a few days later when he read about the
exhibition in a local paper. "I instantly called the depot, but they told me
that it had already been thrown into the incinerator," he said.

Embarrassed, Mr Postleb contacted Beutler, who, he said, took the news well.

The exhibition is due to finish at the end of the week and Mr Postleb has
offered to clear away the other nine sculptures at his own expense.

The monthly "Check Your Art Sense" lessons, which start on Sunday, will
involve the dustmen being shown two pictures: one from the museum's
permanent exhibition and another lesser-known work from the archive. Then
they will be asked to discuss the differences between them.



http://www.guardian.co.uk/