Artist spends two days searching for needle in haystack

It's a clichéd expression but an Italian artist has literally done it – searched for a needle in a haystack.

Sven Sachsalber spent two days rummaging through a giant pile of hay dumped inside Paris art gallery Palais de Tokyo.

And his efforts did not go unrewarded, with Mr Sachsalber eventually finding it 48 hours later.

The obvious question is, why?

''It is a symbol of the search we are all doing for something,'' Palais de Tokyo director Jean de Loisy told the BBC.

The New York-based performance artist is usually the main protagonist in his works, which are often based on "physical exhaustion".

In the past he has eaten a poisonous mushroom in front of an audience, cut down a large tree by hand, and spent 24 hours locked in a room with a cow.