Museum visitor fills in crossword - damaging artwork

A 91-year-old German woman has been interviewed by police after filling in a crossword that formed part of an artwork.

The work by Arthur Koepcke, titled 'Reading-work-piece', was on display in Nuremberg, and has been valued at around £67,000.

The piece features a partially filled-in crossword puzzle and includes the phrase 'Insert Words'. And the elderly visitor, who hasn't been named under German privacy laws, took the instruction literally.

Using a black biro, she filled in several words, including the English word 'wall'.

She later explained to police that she had simply been doing as she was told, adding that if the museum didn't want people to follow the artist's instructions, they should put up a sign to say so.

Museum director Eva-Christina Kraus said she'd been required to file a criminal complaint for insurance reasons. "It's clear to us that the older lady didn't mean any harm," she tells Deutsche Welle.

Apparently the collector who lent the piece to the museum has taken it in his stride, and the museum has promised to cover the few hundred euros it will cost to repair.

"We will let the lady know that the collector took the damage to the work in good humour, so she doesn't have a sleepless night," says Ms Kraus.

Museum staff must sometimes really hate letting anyone near their exhibits, with visitors frequently causing major destruction. In 2006, for example, a visitor to Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge tripped over and smashed three 300-year-old Chinese Qing Dynasty vases in what he called a 'Norman Wisdom moment'.

And in 2012, a 19th century fresco at the Santuario de Misericodia church in north eastern Spain was ruined after a local pensioner decided to try and restore it - completely obliterating most of the original painting.

Six months ago, an artwork in an Italian museum resembling the aftermath of a party was binned, after a cleaner mistook the cigarette butts and empty bottles for actual rubbish; the same thing happened at another Italian museum too, to a piece aimed at encouraging viewers to consider their environment.

And just last month, a small boy completely destroyed a £10,000 Lego statue at an exhibition in China, only an hour after it was put on display.