Oops! Museum worker tosses two beer cans in the trash — not realizing it was art

As the old saying goes, "One person's trash is another person's treasure." But a maintenance worker at a museum in the Netherlands missed the memo, throwing out a piece of art — which looked like two dented beer cans — that he mistook for trash.

The artwork, "All The Good Times We Spent Together" by French artist Alexandre Lavet, was displayed on the floor of an elevator at the LAM museum in Lisse. And although the cans were "meticulously hand-painted," according to the museum's website, when a well-meaning elevator technician — who was subbing for the regular guy — stepped in to do his job, he thought he'd go the extra mile and accidentally tossed the museum treasures.

"A closer look reveals that these dented cans were meticulously hand-painted with acrylics, with each detail painstakingly replicated," the museum explained. "Unlike ready-made found objects, such as the famous urinal by Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven and Marcel Duchamp, Lavet's piece required a lot of time and effort to create." (See an image of the piece below, posted on X by ArtReview.)

Fortunately, it wasn't long before someone noticed the missing "trash" and dug through some real trash to retrieve it.

From Daily Beast:

The exhibition's curator, Elisah van den Bergh, was able to save the artwork moments before it was thrown out for good, as she came back from a break and saw that it was missing. "We have now put the work in a more traditional place on a plinth so it can rest after its adventure," the museum spokesperson added.

Previously: Can Lego be considered art?