It was less than clear to me that the character's SO would grieve her more than the artwork. The SO seemed to come up with convenient sounding rationalizations for her evolving appreciation for the supposed need to preserve the work, which made her seem fickle and self serving, in more ways than one as it is implied that she has grown more into the art than her lover lately. This seems to me to make the whole situation more tragic and sad, as if the person sacrificing herself is doing so partly in submission to the art's prominence in her lover's life. Afterwards, would her lover realize her mistake, if it is a mistake from her point of view, and regret her emphasis of the art over her love? We don't know.
Both the artist and the art fan seem to be the most weird and sort of lampooned characters in the story, which makes me wonder if the tale is not intended to make us think twice about the values of art and artists. Is it a coincidence that "Cerveza" means "beer" in spanish? Cerveza says he wants to destroy the art to avoid harm being unleashed upon the world, and uses a possible form of violence, war, as his example of what could happen if he doesn't destroy it. Yet he is happy to engage in violence to allow two works to exist at once. Seems inconsistent of him, kind of like his fan at first claiming to understand his "principles", yet not being able to fully accept it later on when the time to destroy the art is near. Artists come off as kind of creepy in this story. I agree with the host though, art and artists are in fact kind of creepy sometimes.
In horror fiction, this weirdness is often depicted as making art of body parts or otherwise making blood tainted drawings. This story sort of touches on that (I was wondering where the body horror would come into the piece as I read it.) but it interestingly seems to concentrate on an almost satirical approach to artistic principles and even enthusiasm backed up by academic babble that one suspects may not be worth as much as those using it insist it is, especially when human lives and love should have more value. Cerveza at least can see that the person sacrificing herself is more impressive than any art he can create. But her lover has seemed to miss that point as she became too engrossed in the art at her friend's expense.
Anyway, I have been reading this author's work since I was a kid, and found it striking from the first unforgettable story I read. I'm not sure this is my favorite example of her stuff, but it was at least thought provoking, which is great.