Culture

Watch This Rogue Bird Shut Down The Art Gallery Of South Australia

The real art is this video.

art gallery bird

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While everyone was busy with Anzac-related events yesterday, the Art Gallery of South Australia was trapped in a nail-biting hunt for a dangerous intruder threatening to destroy its precious art.

What I’m trying to say is that a bird got in, and what followed was a dramatic chase involving a scissor lift, a large net on a pole, and a lucky escape. Oh, and it’s all on video, thanks to Instagram account (Bird) Shit Adelaide.

A post shared by Shit Adelaide (@shitadelaide) on

Honestly, this video is the real art here: a tender depiction of the futility of even trying, the uselessness of technology, and the power of wings. Watch the net-wielding staffer ascend to new heights via scissor-lift, only to have the majestic noisy miner elegantly evade her weird net pole thing. Actually, it looks like one of those pool cleaners. Why does the Art Gallery of South Australia have a pool cleaner?

Thankfully, the net-wielder was ultimately successful, and the bird was captured and released outside. The Art Gallery is being pretty coy about how the final showdown played out, tweeting a picture of a painting of a bird in lieu of details.

When we called them to check in, a representative of the gallery told us “everything’s fine”, but that “everything’s fine is probably all we’re willing to say”. Suffice to say, the bird did not shit on any priceless works of art.

The Gallery declined to comment on how long it took to capture and release the intruder. We hope the poor bird at least got to check out some art.