‘Oh darling, that 4chan screenshot hanging on your wall is absolutely beautiful – is it a genuine?’

Text Thomas Gorton

They are fierce debates that will rage until the end of time: what is art, who gets to decide and how much is it worth? Tracy Emin's stained and shagged-on bedsheets sold for £2.2 million earlier this month, Jackon Pollock's squiggly "No 5 1948" sold for $140 million in 2006 and Monet's lillies fetched £40.9 million two years later. So who's to say that a screenshot of a 4chan post can't sell for good money? "Artwork by Anonymous" was listed on eBay with a minimum bid of $500. Just four days and 45 bids later the screenshot's price had escalated tremendously - the winning bid saw the screenshot "sold" for $90,900. The listing describes the piece as a "One of a Kind work of art". This is because, as the screenshot text reads:

Art used to be something to cherish Now literally anything could be art This post is art.