Don’t feed the fatberg! What a slice of oily sewage says about modern life

A chunk of the monster Whitechapel fatberg is now a superstar museum exhibit. It shines a horrifying light on our throwaway age - but will it stop people clogging up the sewers with the grease from their Sunday lunch?

The fatberg that went on display this month at the Museum of London is proving something of a sensation. Visitor numbers have more than doubled; there is a palpable air of half-term excitement when I visit; and the fatberg fudge - modelled to look like the rough-hewn fatberg brick, with little raisins to represent flies (or something worse) - has sold out. The museum has hit on an unlikely goldmine.

Unsurprisingly, curator Vyki Sparkes is looking pretty pleased with herself, and is already talking about a world tour for her prized object - a slice of the giant Whitechapel fatberg discovered last year. There is just one problem: no one knows if it will survive. It is already changing colour as it continues to dry out, and Sparkes is worried that it may start to disintegrate. It is due to be on show at the museum until July. Best come early to avoid disappointment. But, for now, it is an undoubted triumph, raising the question "what is art" - can hardened sewage in a glass case have aesthetic value? - and confronting us with the environmental destructiveness of our throwaway age.