World of the Bizarre

Priceless painting found to have been hanging upside down for 75 years

By T.K. Randall
November 2, 2022 ·  10 comments

It's not exactly easy to tell which way up this is supposed to be... Image Credit: Piet Mondrian Known as 'New York City', the striking artwork - which consists of multiple criss-crossing colored lines - was painted by Dutch abstract artist Piet Mondrian back in 1941.

It originally went on display at New York's Museum of Modern Art in 1945 before later becoming part of the art collection of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia in Dusseldorf in 1980.

Despite countless art historians and other experts viewing the piece over the last 75 years, only one managed to notice the fact that the painting had been hanging on the wall upside down.

Museum curator Susanne Meyer-Buser discovered the mistake after analyzing the painting for a new art show.

She realized that the lines at the bottom were thicker than those at the top, whereas the artist would have intended for it to be the opposite way around."The thickening of the grid should be at the top, like a dark sky," she said.

"Once I pointed it out to the other curators, we realized it was very obvious. I am 100% certain the picture is the wrong way around."

As it stands, however, it is unlikely that the error will ever be rectified because the painting is now so fragile that turning it the right way up could cause irreparable damage to it.

"The adhesive tapes are already extremely loose and hanging by a thread," Meyer-Buser told The Guardian. "If you were to turn it upside down now, gravity would pull it into another direction."

"And it's now part of the work's story."

Source: Huffington Post | Comments (10)

Tags: Artwork, Gallery