Italian museum’s cleaning crew tosses art piece

WASHINGTON — An art installation in an Italian gallery was supposed to look like trash. Evidently, they did a good job, because last week the cleaning crew treated it accordingly.

The piece by the artistic team of Goldschmied & Chiari is called “Dove andiamo a ballare questa sera?” (Where Shall We Go Dancing Tonight?), and according to Museion, in the South Tyrol town of Bolzano, it’s intended to look like the aftermath of a party — a comment on the end of “a period of consumerism, financial speculation, the advent of commercial TV and much partying” in Italy.

The artists call it “the aftermath of the party, the leftovers of the feast: the metaphorical tree of abundance in ruins.”

Unfortunately, when the cleaning crew came in last Saturday to clean up after an actual party, they got their detritus mixed up, and hauled the art piece away.

“It was the result of a misunderstanding with the staff of the cleaning company,” the museum says in a statement. Museum director Letizia Ragaglia tells NBC News, “When she saw all the bottles of Champagne in the foyer, she thought that must have been the right room.”

All involved were in luck: Thanks to the fact that everything went into the recycling bins, everything but the 30 Champagne bottles was retrieved, and the exhibit was rebuilt.

The museum adds that this isn’t the first time this sort of thing has happened, and says, “It all goes to show how contemporary art is capable of arousing great interest, or even annoying people. We believe it is essential to keep this dialogue open.”

Indeed, the museum is holding a talk next month entitled “Art or trash?,” tracing the use of found and recycled materials by artists such as Picasso and Duchamp.

Critic Vittorio Sgarbi isn’t having it, though.

“If she thought it was rubbish, it means it was. Art should be understood by everyone — including cleaners. The fact that the museum could simply pick the pieces from the trash bin and put them back together shows you that wasn’t art in the first place,” he tells NBC News.