Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow,
Shakespeare, The tragedy of Macbeth, Scene V
The greatest enemy to contemporary art is contemporary art itself
Dante, "life" means "death". Sceptical? look for "life insurance".
I think that museums today are conserving not only art objects, but the purpose of the art.
People die, but art never dies
Epicurus, Ephemeral intelligence will destroy immortal art