--- title: 91-Year-Old Woman In Trouble For Filling In Crossword Art description: The artwork features the phrase, "Insert words" canonical: https://time.com/4408334/crossworld-puzzle-art-filled-in-91-year-old-woman/ author: Rosalie Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-15T18:05:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:34:27.454Z og:title: 91-Year-Old Woman Fills in $89,000 Artwork She Thought Was Crossword Puzzle og:description: The artwork features the phrase, "Insert words" og:url: https://time.com/4408334/crossworld-puzzle-art-filled-in-91-year-old-woman/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 91-Year-Old Woman Fills in $89,000 Artwork She Thought Was Crossword Puzzle twitter:description: The artwork features the phrase, "Insert words" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # 91-Year-Old Woman Fills in $89,000 Artwork She Thought Was Crossword Puzzle by [Rosalie Chan](https://time.com/author/rosalie-chan/) ## Rosalie Chan Jul 15, 2016 6:05 PM UTC by [Rosalie Chan](https://time.com/author/rosalie-chan/) ## Rosalie Chan Jul 15, 2016 6:05 PM UTC An 91-year-old woman is under investigation after filling in the blank spaces on an $89,000 [crossword](http://www.sueddeutsche.de/bayern/nuernberg-rentnerin-fuellt-kreuzwortraetsel-kunstwerk-im-museum-aus-1.3078547) art piece she thought was an actual crossword puzzle. The art piece at Nuremberg’s Neues Museum, called “Reading-work-piece,” is a work of art that closely resembles a crossword. It was made by avant garde artist Arthur Koepcke and features the phrase “insert words.” The woman told police she thought those words were an invitation to start [filling in answers to the clues](http://content.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,70512402001%5F1970843,00.html?iid=sr-link2), [_Suddeutsche Zeitung_](http://www.sueddeutsche.de/bayern/nuernberg-rentnerin-fuellt-kreuzwortraetsel-kunstwerk-im-museum-aus-1.3078547) reported. She also said that the museum did not put up a notice telling visitors not to write on the [crossword](http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/12/20/crossword-inventor-arthur-wynne-honored-with-google-doodle/?iid=sr-link3). Gerlinde Knopp, who led the trip to the museum that the woman attended, said the museum was full of interactive art, which makes it easy to lose sight of what visitors can and cannot do, [_BBC News_ ](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36796581)reported. The woman, who has not been named under German privacy law, wrote on “Reading-work-piece” using a ballpoint pen. According to museum officials, she was reported to the police for insurance reasons. They said they believe the art piece, which is on loan from a private collection and insured for about $89,000, can be restored. The museum said in the future, it will alter the label for the art piece to make it clear that visitors cannot fill in the blanks, [_The Telegraph_](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/14/91-year-old-woman-fills-in-crossword-at-museum---only-to-discove/) reported. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4408334/crossworld-puzzle-art-filled-in-91-year-old-woman/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4408334/crossworld-puzzle-art-filled-in-91-year-old-woman/"},"headline":"91-Year-Old Woman Fills in $89,000 Artwork She Thought Was Crossword Puzzle","datePublished":"2016-07-15T18:05:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:34:27.454Z","description":"The artwork features the phrase, \"Insert words\"","url":"https://time.com/4408334/crossworld-puzzle-art-filled-in-91-year-old-woman/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Crime","Bizarre","Germany","World"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Rosalie Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/rosalie-chan/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4408334/crossworld-puzzle-art-filled-in-91-year-old-woman/","name":"91-Year-Old Woman Fills in $89,000 Artwork She Thought Was Crossword Puzzle"}}]}] ```