At the LAM museum in Lisse, the Netherlands, a technician threw away two empty Jupiler cans he found on the glass elevator, thinking they were just trash. But it was without suspecting that these cans were in reality… a work of art by the French artist Alexandre Lavet, entitled “All the good times spent together”.
The museum likes to place works in unexpected places to encourage visitors to see everyday life from another perspective. These cans, hand-painted with remarkable precision, had been displayed at the top of the elevator to give the impression that they had been left there after work.
“The work looks like two used beer cans, but every detail is actually painted with acrylic,” the museum explains. The cans were so realistic that the technician, replacing a regular employee, mistook them for real waste and threw them away. Curator Elisah van den Bergh quickly noticed their disappearance and launched a search that found the cans in a trash bag, ready to be thrown away.
The museum does not blame the technician’s error, stressing that he was simply doing his job. “It’s ultimately a compliment to the artist,” says Sietske van Zanten, the museum’s director. Lavet created these cans as an ode to Brussels and its moments shared with friends. After careful cleaning, the cans were restored and temporarily exhibited at the entrance to the museum, on a traditional plinth. They will then be reinstalled in another unexpected location.
