Popular element in modern art, particularly the artists of the Dada Movement and Surrealism who deemed that any object could become a work of art if chosen by an artist. In French: objet trouvé. Also see Readymade and Joseph Cornell

Artists who used found objects in their work include:

• Marcel Duchamp
• Pablo Picasso
• Joseph Cornell
• Kurt Schwitters
• Max Ernst
• Diter Rot
• Al Hansen
• Louise Nevelson
• Robert Rauschenberg
• Raoul Hausmann
• Kurt Schwitters
• Jean Tinguely
• Eduardo Paolozzi

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Sources: Arnason, H.H., History of Modern Art, Abrams, NY. Tomkins, Calvin, "The Bride and the Bachelors: Five Masters of the Avante-Guarde", Viking, NY, 1968. http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/1554/found.html Last Updated 04.13.02

Found objects (in French, "objet trouvé") are objects, either natural or man-made, that were not created by the artist him or herself, but merely selected to be part of a work of art or a work of art in and of itself. The latter were called "Readymades" by Marcel Duchamp.

Found objects altered by the artist are considered to be "assisted".

A sculpture created by assembling found objects is referred to by the French term assemblage.