I wonder if I could get one of those grants.
Go out and blow 20 grand on top shelf booze and then glue the empty bottles together in a untidy pile.
Would I have to sprinkle cigarette ash and butts on it like glitter to appeal to todays audiences ?
Perhaps if I put it in a big tank filled with the urine created by the artistic process...
Doesn't sound like a winning proposition in this case for the artist, the entire 20K was used to create the piece, which means he's out all the time and effort aside from some certain intangible change to his rep, which might be for good or bad. Also while the buyer had to pay the GST, the seller/artist would normally have to pay the auction commission (Over here, anyway), so the artist would have come out fairly well into the red on the whole deal.
After GST, the buyer arguably came out the worse for it too, since the work is worth just about the 20K in currency and nothing more.
The Commonwealth got their taxes, but netted against the 20K grant for this
dreckfest, they lost money big time.
The only winner here was the auction house.