Art World
Colorado Climbers Collared After Ascent of Aspen Art Museum
Photo: Aspen Art Museum.
Photo: Aspen Art Museum.
Benjamin Sutton
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Aspenites can’t keep off their new museum building. Two locals have been fined for scaling the exterior of the Aspen Art Museum‘s new Shigeru Ban-designed building, which is sheathed in a wooden lattice.
On August 10, at around 6:30 p.m., a security guard at the museum called upon the Aspen Police Department after 20-year-old Lauren Ashley Twohig and 22-year-old Cooper Donald Means began climbing up the building’s exterior, flagrantly ignoring a nearby “no climbing” sign, the Aspen Daily News reports.
The short-lived ascent was no art heist, though: The pair wanted to pose for a picture. When told to come down from the museum wall, Twohig and Means complied, but their photographer accomplice argued with the security guard, prompting the call to the Aspen PD. All three were given citations for trespassing, though the photographer’s was dropped on August 11. Twohig had a hearing on August 13 in municipal court, where she was given a six-month deferral of judgment. Next week her co-climber Means is due in court.
This climbing incident may seem harmless, but it is not the first to befall the just-finished Aspen Art Museum building. In the wee hours of August 2, the day of its opening gala, police received a report of a fallen climber, but could not locate the injured alpinist when they arrived at the scene.
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