Today’s newspapers blare excitedly about the latest coup by Damien Hirst, the Young British Artist par excellence, who sold to Charles Saatchi for one million pounds a twenty foot, six ton, anatomical model of the male body in painted bronze. However, the real coup is not in the record price for a piece of contemporary art, as the newspapers tacitly argue. It is in the fact that the standard journalist’s question—”Yes, but is it art?”—has vanished without a trace. As Damien will no doubt appreciate, this is the kiss of death.