Apologies to all the art majors of the world that know this anecdote as old guard but I just recently came upon the story of Robert Rauschenberg and the tale of the Erased de Kooning. This video tells the series of events straight from the horses mouth; in 1953 Rauschenberg was feeling marginalized, approached de Kooning to obtain an original piece of art which he could erase and present as his own, Kooning agrees and the art world is torn between thinking it brilliant or a travesty towards de Kooning. Like any art, it's totally subjective if you appreciate the mostly now-blank canvas or not but it is, objectively, an interesting approach to ponder. You can see the whole thing here, as well as the still intact drawing on the back of the piece and the highly adorned back of the frame.