This is what the installation used to look like..

Cleaners at a museum in Italy threw away one of the exhibits thinking it was mess left over from a party on Friday night.

The empty champagne bottles, confetti and pieces of paper did look like the remains of a good night out – but all that’s left to see now is a scrubbed floor and a sign explaining where the art has gone.

Staff at the Museion Bozen-Bolzano in northern Italy posted before and after pictures on their Facebook page yesterday morning explaining the situation.

The exhibition space today (Picture: Facebook)

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The artwork, called ‘Where are we going to dance this evening?’ by Goldschmied & Chiari, was meant to represent the decadence of 1980s Italy, characterised by hedonism and consumerism.



It looks like it might have worked a little too well, with cleaners thinking they had extra work to deal with all the rubbish.

This sign has been put up at the museum:

It translates as ‘The work will be restored soon’ in Italian.

Luckily the dutiful cleaners recycled all the work separating glass and paper so it should be possible to put the installation back together, an Italian newspaper reported.

They added cleaners at the museum had been warned about cleaning up exhibits after similar problems had happened before, but this time a party really had been hosted at the museum on Friday night which led to the confusion.

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Let’s hope they don’t see Tracey Emin’s bed…