60 years ago on 18th October 1961, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, USA famously hung Henri Matisse’s artwork Le Bateau upside-down.
No one noticed for 47 days and it was eventually hung the right way up on 3rd December when an eagle-eyed visitor noticed the mistake.
Le Bateau, by Henri Matisse
On that morning the museum opened a new exhibition “The Last Works of Matisse” unaware that the work had been hung upside down. In the 47 days that elapsed until it was discovered, 116,000 people had visited the exhibition including Matisse’s own son Philippe, an art dealer.
To be honest, the mistake is quite understandable considering it was a simple paper cut-out work of a sailboat and its reflection.
New York stockbroker Genevieve Habert visited the exhibition three times, each time becoming more convinced of the error. She contacted the New York Times newspaper explaining her belief that Matisse would never put the main motif on the bottom and the lesser on top.
She pointed this out to a museum employee whose response was that they cannot be responsible for the printers who published the catalogue which showed the work the right way up.
The exhibition closed on 4th December meaning Le Bateau was only ever on display the right way round during the removal.
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