Donald MacInnes: Art through the looking glass

"Intractable Desire No.6" was 342 Sugar Puffs in the left foot of an old pair of tights

I was rendered quiet as a mouse mime yesterday when I got to Page 21 in i. Never having been what you'd call "a joiner-inner", I'm fine with that which lives outside the mainstream. But here was something which caused even me to question, you know, everything.

It was a photograph of a woman staring at her inverted image in a mirror at Sotheby's in London. What was odd was that said mirror is actually a work of art called (or not) "Untitled" by Anish Kapoor. It will be auctioned on Tuesday and its starting price is in the £400,000 to £600,000 bracket.

That's half a million beans. For a mirror. That doesn't work. Unless you're a bat. And even then, your image would be the right way up. Then again, you're a bat and bats, as we all know, are anything but vain, so this probably wouldn't ruin your day.

With some research, I find this isn't an isolated incident of art madness. Last year Christie's sold an installation called "Intractable Desire No.6" for £240,000 to an anonymous bidder.

And do you know what "Intractable Desire No.6" was? 342 Sugar Puffs in the left foot of an old pair of tights. Can this really be art? Is this what we've become?

It seems so, because two years ago Bonhams broke the then-world record when it sold a sneeze for £300. I'm limp with disdain.

All we can do is vote with our feet and boycott the auction on Tuesday. Are you with me?

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