Why are rubber ducks mysteriously appearing on thrift store artworks?

Attention, Louvre Museum: It might be a good idea to keep Seamus Liam O’Brien away from the Mona Lisa. Otherwise the St. Paul man might be tempted to paint a bright rubber duck somewhere on the famous painting and add his signature to da Vinci's. O'Brien is a scenic artist, sign painter and muralist with fine arts degrees from Ohio State and the University of Florida. For the past few years he’s also been conducting a quirky sort of performance and visual art project.

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He buys a piece of framed art for a few bucks at a thrift store. He paints a rubber duck somewhere on it and adds his name to the signature of the original artist. Then he sneaks the painting back on the shelf at the thrift store to amuse, delight or puzzle store employees or customers. Thus, in O'Brien's hands, a nautical scene by British painter Hugh Knollys of a three-masted, square-rigged sailing ship bravely shouldering its way through the tossing seas is enhanced by a cheerful yellow rubber duck bobbing in the foreground. According to O'Brien's website, the project started when he bought the framed print of the Knollys painting on April 10, 2021, for $3 at the Hidden Treasures Thrift Store in St. Anthony. After painting in the rubber duck, he altered the signature to read “Hugh Knollys + Seamus Liam O'Brien.”

Then at 4:30 p.m. on April 17, he hung the picture back on the wall at the thrift store and wrote on his website, "A successful collaboration! Thank you Hugh for your contribution to the work.” O'Brien has repeated the process about 15 times, adding a rubber duck swimming with a towel to a nature scene by wildlife artist Guy Coheleach, substituting a rubber duck for a dog in a Norman Rockwell print of a boy fishing with his faithful pet, and reinterpreting a still life of a pitcher, tomatoes, grapes and garlic with a rubber duck modeled after Ben Franklin.