Digging up the last supper

French archeologists this week begin examining the remains of an open-air banquet shoveled underground almost 30 years ago as an art performance.

French archeologists this week begin examining the remains of an open-air banquet shoveled underground almost 30 years ago as an art performance. They’re unearthing leftovers from a work now known as Lunch Under The Grass — a meal for 80 in sumptous gardens south of Paris where the star course was offal.

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On April 23, 1983, Swiss artist Daniel Spoerri invited dozens of artists, critics and friends for a lunch held by a 40-metre long trench. The meal over, they trundled tables laden with plates, glasses and leftovers into the trench for posterity.

The remains are to be analysed by specialist laboratories and the parts of the trench already dug up will be re-filled for posterity.