When does an artifact become art?

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Tom DeMont, Owner/artist, Edgartown Scrimshaw: I think that an artifact becomes art when it has been handmade or hand-constructed. There are natural artifacts, fossils and such, but when something has been handmade — a tool, an implement, or something that has been a part of the function or ornamentation of a ship or a building, it gains value. It is something that is collected, sold, and resold. In scrimshaw, a lot of the implements were made by the sailors on the ships, and are now considered art. They hold historic significance.