From the Stupid Idea Goes Bad file...

Student artist charged over fake bomb

A student artist who placed a fake bomb that forced an AIDS charity to cancel part of a black-tie fundraiser at the Royal Ontario Museum has been charged by police.

Thorarinn Ingi Jonsson, 24, who said the item was a "sculpture," faces nuisance and mischief charges. He turned himself in to police last night.

"I didn't expect anything as crazy as what went down," said Jonsson, a third-year integrated media student at the Ontario College of Art and Design.

<snip>

He said he had no idea the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research was holding its annual black-tie fundraiser that night and that he fully expected the "sculpture" to be discovered far earlier than it was.

Elissa Beckett, the AIDS research foundation's executive director, was not amused at how the prank forced the charity to cancel the glitzy after-party to its annual Bloor Street Entertains fundraiser, which accounts for a third of its annual revenues.

"The outcome of having to cancel the ROM component of the event is a $100,000 loss to us," Beckett said, explaining the charity had planned a silent auction at the museum.