[petercooper]

This is not just true of art but even with businesses that get funded by VCs or that make it into Y Combinator. The latest group dating or photo sharing app might just be another dull piece of crap until it gets validated by the celebrity of VCs or an accelerator.

[firebones]

What an idea: businesses as collectibles.

A baseball in the gift shop for $5 versus identical baseball that happened to be Alex Rodriguez's 500th home run fetching $105,000.

It's not the nature of art, it's purchasing the story around it.

idlewords had a name for this: investor storytime. [1] All these examples have less to do with whether something is or isn't "art" and more about whether the mystique around the story appeals to someone who is willing to part with cash to be part of that a story. A plate with shit is a plate with shit, but a plate of shit with a story? Now you're talking.

[1] http://idlewords.com/talks/internet_with_a_human_face.htm

[petercooper]

I'd argue the send glitter to your enemies business was an example of business as art/collectible. MillionDollarHomepage perhaps another example.