Despite the precedent of St. Paul who was understandably flogged for his temerity in most of the cultural centers of his age, I preach a doctrine that is no less offensive than his, to a contemporary ear. Art has no history, and art museums are intellectually abhorrent institutions to the extent that their acquisitive curators take the recognition of a thing as a work of art to turn decisively upon an identification of it as a member of a class with a history, the name of which is art. It is a no less deplorable supposition-because it is also mistaken-that the recognition of a thing as a work of art turns decisively upon an identification of it as an item of a kind with a history, the name of which is art.