Performace art or waste of taxpayers money?

[Ghoulish Delight]

Well, my first observation is this paragraph (emphasis mine)

Miss O'Reilly's fee for the performance is thought to have been drawn from £30,000 given to the gallery by the Arts Council England.

So the "at taxpayers' expense" lead-in is an assumption, not fact. Nice bit of sensationalism there.

As for the merit...never an easy question to answer. In general, I'm in favor of an open threshold. Just because I don't like it doesn't mean it's not art. And I've got no problem with my tax presumed tax money (were I living in Ireland) going to art I don't like as long as it's going to art.