Defining Modern Art

From Reuters:

One of Britain's most prestigious art galleries put a block of slate on display, topped by a small piece of wood, in the mistaken belief it was a work of art.

The Royal Academy included the chunk of stone and the small bone-shaped wooden stick in its summer exhibition in London.

But the slate was actually a plinth -- a slab on which a pedestal is placed -- and the stick was designed to prop up a sculpture. The sculpture itself -- of a human head -- was nowhere to be seen

Can't tell the difference between a work of "art" and the stick that holds it up. I am not in the least bit surprised.

Update: Mark Lawson over at the Groaniad tries to defend the con game with the hoary old "anything is 'art' so long as you call it that and then wrap it in a thick coat of double-talk" argument.