Since discovering that Madrid’s Reina Sofía museum had “misplaced” Richard Serra’s 76,000 pound Equal Parallel/Guernica-Bengasi sculpture, the artist has agreed to recreate the missing sculpture. According to the New York Times, Serra will (re)produce a twin of the original for $99,238, basically the cost of the metal sheets to reproduce the piece. The sculpture will be shown next year at MoMA before joining the Reina Sofía’s permanent collection. “It’s a very happy ending,” said museum director Ana Martínez de Aguilar.
This is a happy ending indeed – although to have something in storage for so long that the storage company goes out of business and you have no idea where your stuff went – in particular your 78 thousand pound sculpture – maybe its time to introduce some inventory systems into your museum.