A 91-year-old woman completed a crossword puzzle that was actually a $116,000 artwork
A 91-year-old German woman broke out a ballpoint pen to fill out a crossword at a museum. Then she found out it was a piece of art worth $116,000.
What appeared to be an inviting, blank puzzle on the wall at Nuremberg's Neues Museum is actually an avant-garde work called "Reading-work-piece" by Arthur Koepcke, the BBC reports.
But you can't really blame the woman for her transgression: There was a sign hanging next to the work that read "Insert words."
"The lady told us she had taken the notes as an invitation to complete the crossword," a local police spokesman told the Telegraph.
Museum spokespeople said that the work could be restored for only a few hundred euros. And since the woman wasn't acting out of malice, the museum plans to cover the cost.
"We do realize that the old lady didn't mean any harm," museum director Eva Kraus told the Telegraph. "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."