A Danish museum loaned² artist Jens Haaning tens of thousands of dollars and asked him to recreate two of his most popular artworks, which involved the use of real banknotes, only he took the money and ran, an act he describes as an original work of art.

一家丹麦博物馆借给艺术家延斯·哈宁价值数万美元的现金，请他重新创作他最受欢迎的两幅作品。这两幅作品都是用真钞创作而成。没想到哈宁卷款而去，并将这一行为称作原创艺术。

 

The Kunsten Museum of Modern Art in Aalborg asked Jens Haaning to recreate two of his most popular artworks, one he had produced in 2011 called An Average Danish Annual Income, which featured krone banknotes in a frame⁴, and an earlier version⁵, An Average Austrian Annual Income. For the original works³, Haaning had borrowed the money from banks, but this time the museum agreed to loan¹ him the cash from its limited reserves. He required 328,000 kroner for the Danish annual salary and €25,000 for the Austrian salary. Only instead of recreating the artworks, he just sent the museum two empty canvases⁶, and the message that him keeping the money they had lent him was the actual artwork.

位于奥尔堡的昆斯登现代艺术博物馆请延斯·哈宁重新创作他最受欢迎的两幅艺术品。一幅是他在2011年创作的作品，名为《一位丹麦平民的年收入》，这幅作品是用丹麦货币创作而成的。另一幅是更早的版本《一位奥地利平民的年收入》。原作中所用货币是哈宁从银行借来的，但这次博物馆同意将有限的储备资金借给这位艺术家。哈宁声称创作《丹麦平民收入》和《奥地利平民收入》分别需要32.8万克朗和2.5万欧元钞票。只不过他非但没有重新创作艺术品，而是寄给博物馆两个空画框，并表示他将博物馆借给他的钱据为己有这一行为才是真正的艺术品。

 

"The work is that I have taken their money,” Haaning told the Danish radio program P1 Morgen last week. “It’s not theft. It is a breach⁷ of contract, and breach of contract is part of the work.”

哈宁上周告诉丹麦广播节目P1 Morgen说：“作品就是我拿走了他们的钱。这不是偷窃。这是毁约，而毁约也是作品的一部分。”

 

"Of course I will not pay it back,” the artist added. “The work is that I took the money and I will not give it back.”

“我当然不会还钱，”艺术家补充道，“作品就是我拿走了钱而且不会归还。”

 

Lasse Andersen, the director of the Kunsten Museum, claims that a day before a new art exhibition was to open, Jens Haaning had the commissioned artworks delivered, only when the package was opened, it contained just two empty frames⁸. He also bothered sending an email saying he thought it was more interesting to do a new work called “Take the Money and Run”.

昆斯登博物馆馆长拉塞·安德森称，在新艺术展开幕前一天，延斯·哈宁将博物馆委托他创作的艺术品寄到了，只是当他们拆开包裹时，里面只有两个空画框。哈宁还特意发了一封电子邮件说，他认为创作一幅名为“卷款而逃”的新作品更有趣。

 

"I absolutely want to give Jens the right to say that a new work has been created in its own right, which actually comments on the exhibition we have, but that is not the agreement we had,” Andersen said, adding that he does not intend to go to the police about this just yet, as the artist has until January 16, next year, to return the money he was lent.

安德森说：“哈宁创作新作品自有他的道理，他当然有这个权利，而且这也呼应了我们这次展览的主题，但是他违反了当初和我们达成的协议。”安德森补充道，他还不打算报警，因为哈宁的还款日期是明年1月16日。

 

Haaning, on the other hand, has made it very clear that he has no intention of returning the money to the museum.

与此同时，哈宁已经非常明确地表示，他无意将这笔钱归还给博物馆。

 

"No, it’s not going to happen. The work is that I have taken their money,” he told national broadcaster DR.

他告诉丹麦广播电台说：“不，还钱是不可能的。作品就是我拿了他们的钱。”

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