DETROIT (AP) – Apparently, one 12-year-old visitor to the Detroit Institute of Arts doesn’t think much of abstract art.

The boy stuck a wad of gum to a $1.5 million painting called “The Bay” by Helen Frankenthaler, leaving a stain the size of a quarter, officials said.

The boy, who was not identified because of his age, was part of a school group that was visiting the museum last week when officials said he took a piece of gum out of his mouth and stuck it on the 1963 painting.

The gum stuck to the painting’s lower left corner and did not adhere to the fiber of the canvas, officials said.

But it left a chemical residue about the size of a quarter, said Becky Hart, assistant curator of contemporary art.

The museum’s conservation department is researching the chemicals in the gum to decide which solvent to use to clean it. The museum hopes to make the repair in two weeks and will keep “The Bay” on display in the meantime, she said.

“Our expectation is that the painting is going to be fine,” Hart said.

Holly Academy director Julie Kildee said the boy had been suspended from the charter school and says his parents also have disciplined him.

“He is only 12 and I don’t think he understood the ramifications of what he did before it happened, but he certainly understands the severity of it now,” said Kildee.

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On the Net:

Detroit Institute of Arts: http://www.dia.org

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BEIJING (AP) – Beijing is launching a campaign to stamp out public spitting to try to clean up its image for the 2008 Olympics.

The government says spitting is the city’s “most serious bad habit,” Zhang Huiguang, director of Beijing’s Capital Ethics Development Office, said Wednesday.

Tourists visiting Beijing often are startled at how many people spit or blow their noses onto sidewalks.

The crackdown is part of efforts to raise “ethical and cultural” standards before the 2008 Summer Games, a major prestige project for the communist government.

Zhang said officials will launch an advertising campaign on radio, television, the Internet and mobile phones to “teach people the right way to spit.”

“For example, you have to spit into a tissue or a bag, then place it in a dustbin to complete the process,” she said.

Spitting is already punishable by a $5 fine but Zhang said the frequency of citations will increase.

Enforcement also will be ramped up against littering – the second-worst habit her office faces – and pets fouling the streets, the No. 3 scourge.

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AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) – Thrifty Belgians are causing a headache for Dutch supermarkets by gathering large numbers of plastic Coca-Cola bottles and bringing them across the border to the Netherlands to collect the deposit.

The scheme takes advantage of a recent move by Coke’s Dutch arm to introduce new bottles that are identical to the ones used in Belgium – but the Dutch bottles carry a 30-cent deposit.

While the Netherlands’ NOS television reported that Belgians were bringing bottles across the border in “massive” numbers, a Coke spokeswoman downplayed the story.

“There are incidents, but I probably wouldn’t use the word ‘massive’,” Marte van Esser said.

Coke raised its Dutch prices by 30 to 40 percent on average when the bottles were introduced in January. The company is attempting to recover from a two-year price war in Dutch supermarkets that left its products selling near the same price as in-house brands.

Sija de Jong, a spokeswoman for the supermarket industry group CBL, said she doubted any bottle-returners were becoming millionaires.

“It’s a sporadic phenomenon, but it’s obviously an annoyance for the supermarkets,” she said.

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PITTSBURGH (AP) – A man who started shining shoes at a hospital in 1982 set a goal of donating $100,000 in tips to the hospital’s fund for poor children.

Albert Lexie on Tuesday was honored by Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh for reaching that milestone.

Lexie, 63, of Monessen, received a commemorative plaque; a second plaque will be placed at the hospital.

“It is inspiring to see what Albert has achieved through his hard work, generosity and dedication to the patients and families of Children’s,” said Roger A. Oxendale, the hospital’s president and CEO.

Lexie charges $3 for a shoeshine, which he does at the hospital using a box he built at age 15 in his high school shop class. He takes a bus to the hospital twice a week and donates tips from his business to the Free Care Fund, which allows children to receive medical care regardless of their family’s ability to pay.

“I always like to say, Jerry has his kids and I have mine,” Lexie said, referring to Jerry Lewis’ telethon for children with muscular dystrophy.

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On the Net:

http://www.chp.edu

http://www.kevweb.com/albert/index.htm

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