Although the Museum of Modern Art’s acquisition of the “@” symbol raised eyebrows, the Duchampian overtones of bringing a piece of anonymous typography into the museum are obvious. The act tests the barrier between art and industrial design — are all marks of punctuation theoretically worth contemplating in the museum context? Can a semiotic element be “owned,” or could other institutions claim other versions of the “@”?

And what if MOMA’s “@” is a forgery?