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WEEKLY NEWS 1: $1.5 Million Painting Gets Gummed

In Detroit, Michigan, a 12-year-old boy showed the world his opinion of art while on a school field trip at the Detroit Institute of Arts. He stuck his wad of chewed up gum on "The Bay," a painting created by Helen Frankenthaler in 1963.

The painting was worth $1.5 million. The boy stuck it on the lower left corner of the painting, but it did not stick to the canvas. It did, however, leave a chemical residue about the size of a quarter. Officials were called in due to the situation, but the boy's name will not be released to the public because of his age.

The museum's conservation department is currently researching the chemicals found in the gum so they can decide what cleaner will be used to remove the stain. The painting will remain on display, and the museum hopes to have the stain removed within the next 2 weeks. "Our expectation is that the painting will be fine," Becky Hart, the assistant curator of contemporary art at the museum, told the Associated Press.

As for the boy who gummed the $1.5 million painting? He's been punished by his parents and suspended from the Holly Academy where he attends school. The school's director, Julie Kildee, told the Associated Press, "He is only 12, and I don't think he understood the ramifications of what he did before it happened, but he certainly understands the severity of it now."

--Written by Sara Dean

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