Cleaning Woman Ruins Million Dollar Artwork

An overzealous cleaner accidentally destroyed a piece of art worth more than $1 million when she removed what she thought was a “stain” from the installation. Martin Kippenberger’s “When it Starts Dripping from the Ceiling” remains in place at the Ostwall museum in Dortmund, Germany, despite the damage sustained earlier this month when a cleaner scrubbed away the painted puddle beneath a rubber trough placed under a stacked tower of wooden slats. The work by Kippenberger, a German-born artist who died in 1997, was on loan to the museum from a private collector who agreed that it should remain on display despite the incident. In the meantime, insurance adjusters are assessing the damage. It has not yet been decided whether the patina would be restored, or if the artwork would be left in its newly “cleaned” condition.