Is all art worth preserving?

In the October 18, 2013 issue of The Wall Street Journal, Clemens Bonsdorf  wrote about a preservation dilemma (“Norway Debates Demolishing Picassos”). Norway’s Ministry of Government Administration, Reform and Church Affairs has recommended the demolition of two Brutalist style buildings that were damaged by terrorist bombings in 2011. However, those buildings contain site-specific murals designed by Picasso and executed by Carl Nesjar. While some contend that the murals—the first done by Picasso in that technique—are of historic importance, others are of the belief that “not everything that Picasso created was great and the works Nesjar applied for Picasso are not worth keeping”. It is doubtful that anyone believes that every work of art ever created is worth preserving. The question is who gets to decide which works are not.