Blow, blow, blow!

On October 13th 1997, three ETA terrorists failed to blow up the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. Three days before the museum's inauguration by the head of the Spanish Crown, the terrorists approached the building disgused as local flower suppliers, using a van with fake license plates, a fake delivery notice and fake IDs. They were about to complete Jeff Koons’ “Puppy”, a giant sculpture coated with flowers and hanging moss, with an elaborate arsenal of grenades, rocket launchers, automatic rifles and detonators.

The artwork completed the prior weekend, the local authorities were not expecting any further additions to the masterpiece. The presence of a gardening van on the museum's esplanade spurred suspicion from ertzaintzas (basque police force). Approaching the parked van and the undercovered activists, a police guard was shoot on his shoulder blade. One terrorist was arrested on the spot. The two remaining ones ran off, only to be located years later. This is the story of a missed plot to blow an innocent looking piece of artwork.