ROTTERDAM, Netherlands — A Dutch museum has answered a question nobody was asking: What would happen if an entire gallery floor were covered with enough peanut butter to make roughly 15,000 sandwiches?

The answer is modern art, apparently.

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam has spread more than 800 pounds of smooth peanut butter across a large section of floor in tribute to the late Dutch conceptual artist Wim T. Schippers, who died in June at age 83.

The installation is called “Pindakaasvloer,” or “Peanut Butter Floor.” Schippers first created the work in 1969 as part of a series exploring unusual floor coverings. Other possibilities apparently included salt and broken glass, making peanut butter the more visitor-friendly option.

Museum employees used drywall trowels to spread the peanut butter over a 25-square-meter hexagonal area at a thickness of roughly two centimeters. They followed a detailed 20-point plan Schippers prepared before his death, including instructions that the surface be made as smoothly and boringly as possible.

That may be the first artwork in history whose official directions essentially said:

Use smooth. No chunks. And try not to enjoy yourselves.

Visitors are not permitted to walk, sit or lie on the exhibit, even though the floor looks remarkably like the aftermath of a catastrophic sandwich-making accident.

The smell, however, is part of the experience.

People reportedly begin detecting the peanut aroma before reaching the exhibit, which means the museum now functions partly as an art gallery and partly as the world’s largest mousetrap.

Officials also posted allergy warnings. That is probably wise, since most museums do not normally require guests to consider whether standing near the artwork could cause a medical emergency.

The peanut butter was donated by Dutch manufacturer Calvé, sparing the museum from having to explain a receipt for 40 industrial buckets at the local supermarket.

Schippers became known for absurdist art that deliberately blurred the line between serious cultural statement and elaborate practical joke. He also worked in Dutch television and supplied voices for characters in the Netherlands’ version of Sesame Street.

His peanut butter floor has been recreated several times, and previous versions have attracted confused visitors, accidental footsteps and spirited arguments over whether the installation qualifies as art.

Museum supporters say the piece challenges conventional ideas about materials, beauty and meaning.

Skeptics may observe that somebody spread peanut butter on the floor and then hired security to stop people from stepping in it.

Either way, the installation succeeds at one traditional purpose of art: people are talking about it.

The exhibit will remain on display through early September, unless it is first consumed by ants, mice or one extremely determined golden retriever.