At the Mausoleum, Art About Art Houses.

''Museums are like the family sepulchers of works of art,'' wrote Theodor Adorno, the 20th-century German philosopher, who pointed out that ''museum'' and ''mausoleum'' even sound alike. ''Spies in the House of Art: Photography, Film and Video,'' a Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition of 17 contemporary works inspired by museums, all from the Met's collection, doesn't mention Adorno by name. But it nods toward him in an introductory wall text telling us that although artists generally want to see their work in museums, ''they may joke among themselves with gallows humor that museums are mausoleums, places where art goes to die.'' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]