Vent: Paid $42 for a 'coffee art' print that was just a burnt toast stain

Okay so I finally went to that little gallery in Portland that everyone swears by, you know the one with the weird window displays. I saw this framed piece they called 'Latte Nocturne' and honestly it looked like a beautiful mountain scene in the fog, I dropped $42 on it without thinking. Got it home, hung it up in my kitchen, and my roommate squints at it for like 5 seconds and goes 'is that a scorch mark on a slice of sourdough?' I pulled it off the wall and yeah, it was literally a crumpled up piece of burnt toast pressed into a frame. The artist even left a tiny crumb behind the glass, which I guess is part of the joke but I didn't think it was funny. I spent an hour trying to scrub the smell of charred bread out of my apartment. Has anyone else bought something from one of those 'accidental art' pop ups and realized you paid for someone's kitchen accident instead of an actual piece?

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elliots4912d agoMost Upvoted

My buddy Cole dropped $60 on a "moody texture piece" from some sidewalk artist in Brooklyn last summer. He hung it above his couch and bragged about it for weeks, real artsy vibes he claimed. Then his cat knocked it off the wall and the frame cracked open. Turns out it was just a dried up piece of guacamole on a paper towel, like someone forgot their lunch and framed the aftermath. The smell when it broke was unreal, worst part was the green dust that went everywhere. He tried to return it but the "artist" just laughed and said the piece was about impermanence. Cole still has the frame, but he threw the guac in the trash and now tells everyone it was a fake from the start.