Murals in restaurants are on a par with the food in museums.

The joke hinges on a neat reversal: restaurant murals are usually decorative, not serious art, just as museum food is usually functional, not serious cuisine. By declaring them “on a par,” De Vries satirizes the mismatch between setting and excellence—how a venue associated with one kind of quality often delivers mediocrity when it tries to provide another. The line also skewers cultural signaling: murals can lend a restaurant an air of sophistication, while museum cafés trade on the museum’s aura, yet neither guarantees substance. Under the humor is a skeptical view of institutional prestige and the thinness of aesthetic “add-ons.”