A German cleaner at a museum in Dortmund set about removing what she thought was an unsightly stain on a plastic bowl and ended up destroying a piece of art valued at £690,000.
The artwork was “When It Starts Dripping From The Ceilings”, a piece by the late artist Martin Kippenberger and comprised a tower of wooden slats with a plastic bowl at the bottom. The bowl eas painted brown to give the impression of discolouration caused by water. The cleaner took the paint to be an actual stain and scrubbed the bowl until it looked new.