In the case of the missing Annette Messager installation I wrote about the other day, where there's suddenly a blank wall in the Elles exhibition at Seattle Art Museum, museum spokesperson Cara Egan has responded: "I can only confirm that the work was accidentally damaged and removed for conservation. While it will not be back on view before we close the show on Sunday, the piece will be okay."

The piece was Les Piques (1992-1993). Various objects, like dolls and framed photographs, were stuffed inside women's black stockings and impaled on stakes that leaned against the wall forming a psychologically charged forest. Messager has said:

I wanted an opacity which conveyed terror, such as the masks that criminals pull over their faces, or policemen.

I wouldn't be surprised if the person who damaged it—word on the street says it was someone from maintenance—was at least a little bit afraid of it. Poor janitor!