Pease explain why this is art.

[muggle]

If the art, and I didn't look at it, is worth $1.5 million then perhaps someone sees something that some do not. I am not very knowledgeable in art but I have gone to a local art show that is one of the best collections of Aboriginal Art in the world....The Kluge Aboriginal Collection and after viewing it was extremely impressed with their art, which is very different than other forms.

 

[Shade]

What we need to do is find one of those, toss in some soggy cigarette butts, perhaps a used condom, syringe, and perhaps toss in a copy of the bible. Add a few well placed pipes and it’s off to Paris we go to make millions. Toss in an American flag and we could double its value.

Go ahead and do it then, instead of talking about it. We'll see you in the Arts pages of the papers. Possibly.

As for The Bay, it looks rather beautiful to me (from what I can see of it in that little jpg on the BBC page). The price tag of $1.5m is really neither here nor there. A piece of visual art is unique - only one of it exists - so only one person or institution can own it. That's in contrast with, say a book, or a piece of music, where it can easily be reproduced - in those, the physically bound pages, or the CD, are not the thing you're paying for, it's what's on the pages or the CD. However with the painting it is the physical object that you're paying for, and as only one exists, then if there are several people or public bodies of like mind (and deep pocket), then the price is going to go through the roof pretty quickly.

To compare on cost basis, I think $1.5m is better spent on having The Bay available forever for people to see, than on a handful of personal appearances by Donald Trump, or to have David Beckham play soccer for eight weeks.

 

[Robert]

I'm just expressing my opinion on this the best way I know how. The Bay may or may not be a good work of art, but when values are placed on a urinal as a piece of art or on the paintings of monkeys then it's time to call a spade a spade. A urinal may be a statement, but it is not art.

IMHO, The whole thing is a statement about the poor state of modern art.