The graffiti-covered Berlin Wall section given to Microsoft by Daimler-Benz AG will join nearly 2,000 other works in the Microsoft Art Collection. However, if you customarily think of graffiti as little more than urban vandalism, you may be wondering, "Is this art?"

In the case of the Berlin Wall, the graffiti was often painted on it as an expression of protest against the Stalinist East German regime that built it. The graffiti became a way to symbolically breach the Wall and to challenge its legitimacy. The wall attracted artists – unknown and well-known, German and non-German – whose efforts ranged from scribbled words to complex compositions and even large-scale murals.

The art was transitory, however. The Wall stood on East German land, and technically the West side of the Wall was East German property, and the East German authorities ordered it "whitewashed" from time to time, essentially creating fresh canvas for new artistic endeavors. As new graffiti replaced the over painting, the Wall became a dynamic focal point for the visual expression of the cultural, social and political divisions between East and West. It became an ever-changing, open and participatory museum of, yes – art.

Regarding the Microsoft section of the Wall, colorful graffiti appear on both the East and West sides. On the West side we see brightly colored, spray-painted graffiti of the type seen in many urban areas. While it is difficult to tell without the context of adjacent sections what sort of larger artwork this graffiti might have belonged to, it is nevertheless a richly colored, energetic and tightly-composed abstraction – a collage of urban graphic gestures.

But it is the graffiti on the East side of the Microsoft Wall section that may well prove to be the most intriguing for viewers. A multicolored rainbow and the word "Happy" rise above a collection of sparely drawn images, among which are flowers, a teddy bear, and a man wearing a beret. Almost certainly these pleasant images were painted after the Wall was opened in 1989 and before it was actually taken down, and it’s reasonable to speculate that they were painted to celebrate the momentous opening. But the idea that such cheerful imagery found its way to the East side of the Wall is an intriguing contrast with the typical Western view of the former East Germany as a bleak, oppressive and decidedly unhappy place.

And what happened to the rest of the wall? Except for a small section preserved in place as a memorial, the Berlin Wall is now gone – built by the East but largely disposed of by the West. Bits were broken off and kept for souvenirs or sold by entrepreneurs, and large sections were sold or given to museums. History was suddenly transformed into currency, traded and distributed. In central Berlin, in place of the Wall near Potsdamer Platz, rises an ambitious new multifaceted development incorporating business, residential and entertainment facilities, a symbol of revitalization and optimism for the newly unified Berlin. But the people of the former East and West Germany are still in the process of adjusting to reunification, and it may be a generation or so before we’ll know whether the optimism suggested by the image of the rainbow and the new Potsdamer Platz is fulfilled.