Oblivious Art Fans Thought This Cheap Ikea Painting Was Expensive Art

What is art, really? What is it? This is a video in which a bunch of so-called “art experts” in the Netherlands are tricked into thinking an Ikea painting is high art.

The LifeHunters, an Internet faction, performed the prank by placing a painting from Ikea’s “Street Art” collection in the Modern Museum for Modern Art in Arnhem to see how people would react.

The host, Boris, even tells some museum-goers that the work is from a Swedish artist named Ike Andrews. Everyone is deeply moved:

“You can clearly see that it concerns a form of symbolism.”

“Primordial shapes, a hut somewhere in Africa…”

“It’s a depiction of the chaos in his mind.”

“Dear me, it’s unbelievable.”

Isn’t it? All this proves is that humans dislike not knowing things. Whoever made those Ikea prints: congrats, people think you’re a genius.

I still have a couple of mesmerizing Ikea masterpieces myself, including a black-and-white canvas print that’s just an image of two stones. It’s brilliant.