Surrealist painting found in recycling bin at German airport

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/340000-surrealist-painting-was-found-recycling-bin-180976542/

by commons-tragedy • 6 years ago

116 59 6 years ago

smithsonianmag.com

underseacables• 6 years ago

Imagine you’re so wealthy that you would rather leave behind a $340,000 painting than miss your flight

pacamara619• 6 years ago

From the article it seems it wasn't on purpose:

An unnamed businessman forgot the canvas—an untitled and undated work by French painter Yves Tanguy—at a check-in counter when boarding a flight [...] He soon realized that the 16- by 24-inch painting, which he’d stored in a flat cardboard box, had gone missing, and upon arriving in Israel, immediately contacted German authorities.

chki• 6 years ago

which is also very remarkable. If I had a painting worth 340.000 $ with me, I would not leave it out of my sight, much less forget about it.

vmception3• 6 years ago

In my first luxury apartment, I was paranoid to leave the door unlocked even momentarily to go to the trash shoot.

The concern wears off.

The only thing that doesn't wear off is understanding that you wont get any sympathy for the real situations you get into for the rest of your life. That’s the price of admission.

antisthenes2• 6 years ago

The only thing that doesn't wear off is understanding that you wont get any sympathy for the real situations you get into for the rest of your life

If you're wealthy, why would you expect sympathy for anything other than terminal illness of yourself or your loved ones? (or similar issues you have no control over)

Because for all other issues, you can just call up a service, pay them and have the problem go away.

tillinghast• 6 years ago

Lol, I'm looking at this painting thinking: who ripped off whom, Dalí or this guy? Turns out: Dalí.

From wikipedia: "Dalí was also influenced by the work of Yves Tanguy, and he later allegedly told Tanguy's niece, 'I pinched everything from your uncle Yves.'" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador_Dal%C3%AD

ipodopt• 6 years ago

<Sigh,> your comment led me here to Yves's wife's wiki page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kay_Sage

IfOnlyYouKnew4• 6 years ago

I'm somewhat taken by her work Tomorrow is Never, as shown in the article or, in slightly better resolution, at https://collectionapi.metmuseum.org/api/collection/v1/iiif/4...

It's 97 cm x 1.36 m originally and I need to get back to the MET and see it. Also copyright in circumstances like this needs to suck a surreal clock that looks, tastes, and trains an equivocating hamster exactly as a dick does.

ineedasername2• 6 years ago

Pretty much the whole evolution of art consists of creative rip-offs of what came before.

anonytrary2• 6 years ago

Right, at some point "being able to rip off the people who came before you and still be interesting" is what it means to be a great artist. Steal, steal, steal -- but don't copy.

anonytrary2• 6 years ago

I thought it was a Dali at first.

whymauri• 6 years ago

This situation, in and of itself, feels quite surreal.

IfOnlyYouKnew4• 6 years ago

thoroughly examined the contents of paper recycling dumpsters used by the cleaning crew.

I've seen comments elsewhere noting how German it supposedly is to examine the paper dumpsters only, and to actually be right about it.

So to nip this in the bud, let me state for the record that these are mediocre Germans at best: Oil-on-canvas does not belong in the paper recycling. They should have separated the cardboard box and properly disposed the painting as refuse.

Edit: extremely embarrassing typo corrected (see responses if you really have to know). I was going for self-deprecation, which has traditionally worked out to be less painful than this for post-war Germany. Clearly, I'm mediocre at best myself.

kjs32• 6 years ago

The paint could have contained lead or other heavy metals. Clearly, not mediocre but below average.

P.S. - Showed your post to some of my German colleagues. They laughed. They never laugh.

stkdump• 6 years ago

They laugh all the time, they just don't find your jokes very funny ;)

huntedsnark• 6 years ago

Nip in the "bud" not "butt" as long as we're offing exacting critiques ;)

https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/nip+in+the+bud

DavidSJ• 6 years ago

I think you might mean offering, not offing.

eps• 6 years ago

Oh, stop it with this petty nutpicking.

tomcam• 6 years ago

Don’t worry, a fastidious HN’er nipped your thing in the butt

tuco86• 6 years ago

Peak german humor right there. Very efficient, I'm impressed. Thank you

type0• 6 years ago

Funnybot would be so proud

jamil72• 6 years ago

I’ve come to embrace Mülltrennung wholeheartedly while living here. I even left my first angry note last week to neighbours throwing glass away and not returning it to a recycling bin. I think it’s an important integration step.

IfOnlyYouKnew4• 6 years ago

It is on the path to Germanicity.

To achieve full Germaninality, however, you have to learn not to want it too much. It's really Zen, in a way, if Zen was still and will, rightfully, forever be trying to overcome the industrialisation of genocide.

hengheng• 6 years ago

Oh. Oh. Time to emigrate I guess.

LargoLasskhyfv2• 6 years ago

Ahem! Not every glass should go into the recycling bin. Most drinking glasses would spoil the stock. So if in doubt, anything which doesn't have a recycle sign on it's label or those dot markings at the bottom for the sorting machines is wrong there. That would be "Restmüll". :-)

jeofken• 6 years ago

Travelling from Germany (in EU) to Israel (outside of EU) with something worth 300k - is there any chance it’s not someone trying to hide a big transfer from the German state?

(Good for him if so! Tax evasion is moral)

rsynnott• 6 years ago

Silly way to do it if so. "Anything to declare?" "No! Certainly not this huge cardboard box I'm carrying!"

That sort of smuggling would normally depend on small high-value items. Not bloody huge ones.

And in general, unless the money is dirty, there should be no particular problem transferring money from Germany to Israel.

k_sze• 6 years ago

Or he could be betting on the customs officers not knowing Yves Tanguy. He could just claim that it’s a random cheapish painting he bought as a gift, especially since it’s unsigned and undated.

In contrast, everybody knows what a gold bullion is.

IfOnlyYouKnew4• 6 years ago

Hide it how? By forgetting it, calling the police (twice), and having your otherwise boring art purchase make the international news?

Besides, wouldn't it be the seller that's liable for taxes? And if they're trying to hide from Israeli customs then (a) good luck with that, and (b) as far as I can tell, their plan was to... just travel to Israel with the painting? What's the plot here, exactly? I'd at least get someone to paint a few replicas and import them as a set.

Also tax evasion isn't moral.

ineedasername2• 6 years ago

Well, a bit of a different twist on the meaning of "found art". [0] A step up from signing your name on a toilet bowel and shoving it in an art gallery. (Though not as funny.)

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Found_object

antimora• 6 years ago

Does anyone know a good Bluetooth device that has a separation alert? I would like to put on my bag. Phone would ring if the device is left behind.

ljf3• 6 years ago

Almost any Bluetooth device with a long battery life can do this. Get. Xiaomi Mi Band and the fan made app contains a function to set an alarm when you lose connection.

93po• 6 years ago

Tile does this

pseingatl• 6 years ago

Something tells me there's more to this story. Much more:

1) the value of the painting and the careless way it was handled suggests subterfuge.

2) Where was this painting during the War? Specifically, after 1933?

3) Is it the subject of any claims?

4) Was this an instance of self-help by descendants of owners who were forced to sell cheaply given the situation in Germany, who had previously not succeeded in their claims?

5) Siemens no longer gives briefcases full of cash to secure foreign contracts. But a painting?

6) Israel is a "no questions asked" jurisdiction when it comes to banking. Scenario: a Russian buyer pays $300k in cash in Israel, the funds are immediately deposited in an Israeli bank. Hard to do that anywhere else (maybe Ciudad del Este, or Northern Cyprus). Seller wires funds out from Israel from time to time, raising no suspicion or tax inquiries.

itronitron• 6 years ago

Yeah, there is something weird about it, and the painting is a significant one (featured in Art History books) so it seems undervalued.

Surrealist painting found in recycling bin at German airport

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