Boijmans Recreates Schippers' 800lb Peanut Butter Floor After Artist Dies at 83

Q: What happens to 800 pounds of peanut butter after an art exhibition ends?

It is not stated in the reporting what will happen to the 800 pounds of peanut butter when the exhibition ends. The museum coverage explains in detail how Wim T Schippers’ “Pindakaasvloer” was recreated in Rotterdam, including the amount used, the artist’s instructions, and the exhibition’s history, but it does not say whether the peanut butter will be discarded, recycled, composted, or otherwise handled after September 6. What is clear is that the material is part of a temporary conceptual artwork rather than a permanent object. In practice, museums typically dismantle such installations at the end of a run and dispose of perishable materials under hygiene and safety rules. But in this case, no official post-exhibition plan is given in the available reports. So the factual answer is simple: the public reporting does not specify the fate of the peanut butter after the show closes.

3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Jul 10

Museum Boijmans van Beuningen has spread 800lb of peanut butter across a Rotterdam gallery to restage Wim T Schippers’ Pindakaasvloer, a tribute mounted a month after the Dutch artist’s death at 83.
Schippers’ instructions, shown with the work, require 15.6kg of smooth peanut butter per square metre, applied “as smoothly and monotonously as possible,” while banning visitors from stepping on it or approaching it with “any educational purpose.”
The hexagonal installation was conceived in 1962 and first exhibited in 1969, reflecting the absurdist, anti-boredom style that made Schippers a singular figure in Dutch art, television and popular culture.
The work has a history of audience interference: schoolchildren once covered a 1997 version with chocolate sprinkles and bread, and a visitor damaged the Boijmans installation in 2011 after walking onto it and slipping.
The show runs until Sept. 6, with the museum extending the theme beyond the gallery through peanut-butter sandwiches in its restaurant and jars of smooth peanut butter in its shop.