Ulay starts by hanging a reproduction of the Spitzweg painting "The Poor Poet" measuring 2.50 m in front of the College of Fine Arts in Berlin. Then he drives to the National Gallery in his own car and parks it at the back of the building. From there, he walks into the National Gallery building like any normal visitor to the museum, removes the picture from the wall, walks quickly back to his car and escapes in the direction of Kreuzberg to the "Künstlerhaus Bethanien" where he leaves his car. From the Künstlerhaus, he walks into the Moskauer Strasse, still carrying the picture. Once there, he enters a house for immigrant (so-called guest workers') families where, in the living room of one of the families, he takes down a reproduction and hangs up the painting by Spitzweg instead.
The announcement "There is a criminal touch to art", spoken by Ulay, forms the beginning of his account which first presents the headlines and original sounds of a radio report, and solves Ulay's mystery of the so-called "picture theft" by revealing that the 30-year-old was an Amsterdam art student whose Action had been a "demonstrative act".
With Carl Spitzweg's picture of the "Poor Poet", Ulay has in a sense stolen the "symbol of the German soul" from the National Gallery to hang it up in Kreuzberg in a Turkish family's living room. Since it is not only one of the paintings best-known and loved by the public, but has also fallen into disrepute thanks to Hitler's admiration of the artist and his works, Ulay's demonstration gives a clear sign. His concern is to make people aware of the difficult situation of immigrants and their families in Germany.