The Verge:
Some of the world’s greatest artworks are known for their elaborate backstory or complex history, but not many are actively dangerous to those who own them. ‘The Persistence of Chaos’ might be an exception. Created by internet artist Guo O Dong, this piece of art is an ordinary laptop filled with six of the world’s most dangerous pieces of malware. It’s perfectly safe — as long you don’t connect to your Wi-Fi or plug in a USB.
This is incredible to me. Who would buy this? But sell it did, and for about $1.35M.
Truly, baffling as to why anyone would think it’s worth buying [especially since that 2008 laptop is unlikely to remain indefinitely functional, even with battery replacements].
(Modern AV software should stop the first three or four dead without any trouble at all.
“Most dangerous” here mostly means “most expensive at the time”, nothing to do with modern attack surface or danger from them, especially the first three or four.)
It’s not art. It’s munitions.