Yay! A completely-pointless-except-for-fun "what is art" thread. My view is: If an individual considers an item to have artistic merit, it does - to her or him. If an individual considers an item bereft of artistic merit, it has none - to her or him. It's down to the individual, not the item. That applies whether the item is a dead sheep in a tank of chemicals, or the Mona Lisa. That's why I have such a strong belief that 'art' should be entirely in the domain of the private sector with no tax payers' money spent on it at all.