Piet Mondrian artworks displayed upside down for 75 years

Image source, Henning Kaiser/Getty

P ar Paul GlynnEntertain ment reporter

A work by Dutch abstract painter Piet Mondrian has hung upside down in various galleries for 75 years, according to an art historian.

Despite the recent discovery, the work, titled New York City I, will continue to be displayed upside down to prevent damage.

The 1941 photo was first exhibited at MoMA in New York in 1945.

It has hung in the art collection of the German state North Rhine-Westphalia in Düsseldorf since 1980.

Curator Susanne Meyer-Büser noticed the long-standing mistake when researching museum's new exhibit on artist earlier this year, but warned it could disintegrate if hung on the right side now.

New York City I is a tape version of the New York painting of the same name by the same artist.

'In the wrong way'

"The thickening of the grid should be at the top, like a dark sky," Meyer-Büser told the Guardian, at roughly.. .