What is a work of art, and when should it be exempt from taxation?

The Finance Act of 1969 lists a number of artistic categories - "a book or other writing; a play; a musical composition; a painting or other like picture; a sculpture" - which current practitioners might regard as verging on quaint.

In practice, however, the Revenue Commissioners have stretched the definition to allow multi-media installations, for example, to fall within the act's remit - though not feature films or pieces of choreography. Guidelines issued by the Arts Council and the Department of Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht in 1994 attempted to clarify matters but have simply succeeded in muddying the waters - especially in the area of non-fiction.

The guidelines as interpreted at present would disallow Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species and the King James translation of the Bible, while an "instant" biography of a second-rate movie star automatically qualifies. Time for a rethink here?