Modern Art Installation Is So Trashy Cleaners Toss It

Art often imitates life—but sometimes it does so so convincingly that it's mistaken for the subject rather than art. And so it was in Italy over the weekend, when cleaning staff at the Museion modern art gallery in Bolzano, Italy, mistook the modern art installation "Where are we going to dance tonight?" by Milanese artists Goldschmied & Chiari as actual trash and, well, tossed it, reports the Local. In this case the roomful of bottles, cigarette butts, glitter, shoes, confetti, and even clothing were cleaned up the morning after the opening. "We told them just to clean the foyer because that's where the event on Friday night had been," the gallery curator tells Alto Adige. "Evidently, they mistook the installation for the foyer."

Mashable reports that the art, which the gallery calls a "site-specific work staging the scene after the end of a party: the perfect metaphor for the [1980s]," isn't even visible until the museum is closed, allowing viewers the more immersive experience of peering in on a wild party's aftermath when it is cloaked in darkness. Curators say the installation will be restored promptly. This has happened a few times—including a Damien Hirst collection of beer bottles, coffee cups, and stuffed ashtrays that was thrown out in London in 2001. (The modern art market is hot.)