Kid sticks gum on $1.5 painting

2006-03-02 18:52

Detroit - A 12-year-old boy stuck a wad of chewing gum on an abstract painting, leaving a small stain on the $1.5m (about R9.2m)work by American painter Helen Frankenthaler.

The boy was visiting the Detroit Institute of Arts with a school group on Friday when he took a piece of Wrigley's Extra Polar Ice gum from his mouth and mashed it on The Bay, a painting from 1963, said officials.

The gum did not adhere to the fibre of the canvas, but left a small blot of chemical residue on the painting's lower left corner, said Becky Hart, assistant curator.

The museum is researching solvents that might clean the chemicals and will keep The Bay on display in the meantime, Hart said.

"Our expectation is that the painting is going to be fine," she said.

Holly Academy director Julie Kildee said the boy had been suspended from the school and his parents also had disciplined him.

"Even though we give very strict guidelines on proper behaviour and we hold students to high standards, he is only 12 and I don't think he understood the ramifications of what he did before it happened, but he certainly understands the severity of it now," said Kildee.

- AP