Basic Trope: Someone mistakes something ordinary for an exhibit.
- Straight: Bob admires an assortment of bottle caps and wax paper on AstroTurf only for Alice to grumble about vandals and lazy visitors.
- Exaggerated: Bob mistakes everything from an assortment of trash to a mop and bleach bottle to the manager of the museum for exhibits.
- Downplayed: Bob admires a picture of the museum's map.
- Justified:
- Bob has his own way to think and thinks that everything in the museum is supposed to be an exhibit.
- Modern Art tends to fall under Poe's Law; What could easily be just some vandalism or littering is often mistaken for an example of True Art Is Incomprehensible, and vice-versa.
- Inverted: Bob happens across paint spattered on a wall and reports the vandalism to the museum. It turns out the "spatters" are modern art.
- Subverted: Bob admires an assortment of bottle caps, wax paper, and AstroTurf. Alice is about to tell him it's just trash when the artist happens by and says he's glad someone enjoys his latest masterpiece.
- Double Subverted: Said "artist" had left a bunch of trash in the museum calling it an exhibit as an excuse.
- Parodied: After a wild night drinking, Alice wakes up naked and handcuffed to a pole in the middle of the museum. The museumgoers mistake her for an art piece and fawn over and photograph her even as she protests and pleads to be let go.
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted: ???
- Enforced: The author likes to make fun of the "True Art Is Incomprehensible" trope.
- Lampshaded:Alice: Bob, maybe you'd better stick with the "art" recognized by the official tour and not everyone's trash.
- Implied: ???
- Invoked: Charlie places an assortment of trash somewhere official-looking to see if people think it's some kind of art.
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: ???
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed: ???
- Reconstructed: ???
Ah, what a splendid trope! Such magnificent diction and — wait, what do you mean Mistaken for Exhibit isn't this page?
