Take the money and run: Now you can experience the controversial artwork in Aalborg
It made headlines worldwide when artist Jens Haaning’s piece Take the Money and Run was showcased in 2021.
The work was intended to illustrate the average annual income in Denmark and Austria.
What was meant to be an exhibition consisting of two glass frames with banknotes, instead became two empty frames, with only a bit of tape left from where the banknotes had been.
Jens Haaning literally took the money—over half a million kroner—and ran.
This sparked a dramatic legal case, as the question arose: did the artist have the right to the money, or could the Kunsten museum seek compensation for the missing funds? Was this art or theft?
In May 2024, a settlement was reached with the artist, and thanks to a donation from The Obel Family Foundation, visitors to the museum can now experience the piece.
From February 8, the highly discussed artwork Take the Money and Run will be displayed. The piece by Danish artist Jens Haaning has been part of the museum’s collection since 2024.
This was announced in a press release by Kunsten Museum of Modern Art Aalborg.
Why you should see it
Take the Money and Run will be shown in close connection with the Danish artist group SUPERFELX’s permanently installed work Lost Money, which you encounter at the entrance to Kunsten.
Both works critically focus on societal issues such as the value of money, economic overconsumption, and social inequality. In one piece, Lost Money, the money is right at your feet, but you cannot pick it up, and in the other, Take the Money and Run, the money has disappeared with the artist.
“People ask about the work and are eager to see it. As part of the settlement with Jens Haaning, we acquired the piece for our collection, and we can now display it at the museum and also loan it to other museums,” says Lasse Andersson, director of Kunsten Museum of Modern Art Aalborg.
Take the Money and Run is an institutionally critical conceptual artwork where context and surrounding factors are integral to the piece, which critically challenges and questions the structures we adhere to as a society and individuals.
Take the Money and Run has made its mark on contemporary art in the 2020s. The piece now joins another work by Jens Haaning in Kunsten’s collection, Turkish Jokes from 1994, which the museum acquired in 2015. The piece also creates a natural and contemporary connection to Kunsten’s extensive international Fluxus collection.
“When you stand in front of Take the Money and Run, you’re only experiencing part of the artwork. The piece is not just the two frames on the wall, but also the action that resulted in the frames now being empty.
It’s just as much about what happened afterward—the global conversation, the lawsuit, and the settlement—that has shaped the piece, which we can now stand before here at Kunsten,” says Lasse Andersson.
About Take the Money and Run
Take the Money and Run was originally created for an exhibition at Kunsten in 2021, which focused on modern work life. The museum had invited Jens Haaning (born 1965) to recreate two of his earlier works: An Average Danish Annual Income from 2010 and An Average Austrian Annual Income from 2007.
To update the works for contemporary times, the museum lent the artist the money equivalent to the average annual incomes, so the works could be updated. However, upon arrival at the museum, it quickly became clear that the museum had received a different work: the frames were empty, the money was gone, and Jens Haaning declared that he had created a completely new piece: Take the Money and Run. This led to Kunsten filing a lawsuit against Haaning in the Copenhagen District Court over the missing money. The museum won the case, but Haaning appealed to the High Court.
The case was settled in 2024, and Take the Money and Run became part of Kunsten’s collection. The piece was acquired through a donation from The Obel Family Foundation and now represents a significant part of Danish art history.
As part of the museum’s collection, the work follows the Fluxus and avant-garde tradition of the 20th century, alongside many artists who have experimented with breaking from the established and challenging the status quo. This is seen in works by Asger Jorn (1914–1973), Arthur Köpcke (1928–1977), Ben Vautier (1935–2024), Alison Knowles (born 1933), and more recent examples such as Tino Sehgal (born 1976) and the artist group SUPERFLEX.