1,000-year-old Hebrew Bible up for auction // House uncovered at Chichén Itzá // Girl with a Pearl Earring a fake? // One less “Balloon Dog” in the world

Hello everyone, welcome back to By Amara. This is a weekly news show where I discuss contemporary events in the art and history fields. I'm your host and personal curator, Amara Andrew.

The format for this show that I typically follow, but I really just don't follow anymore, is one traditionally used by Western brides: something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue. This week, we're going to be talking about the oldest, most complete copy of the Hebrew Bible up for auction, a housing complex uncovered at Chichén Itzá, Girl with a Pearl Earring might actually be a misnomer, and there's one left one less Jeff Koons' Balloon Dog in the world.

All that and more coming up on this episode of By Amara, let's get to it.

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Well, hello! Welcome to episode 23 of By Amara. This is crazy.

I can't believe we're already 23 weeks into it. Technically 24 because I took a week off, but whatever. And it's just it's wild to me, so welcome back.

Normally I start the show off with a bunch of different updates related to all the stories that I've talked about in weeks past. I actually I actually don't have any.

Why am I always so tongue tied? So, I actually don't have any related to the stories that I've talked about in weeks past, so I'm going to give personal life updates. You can zoom ahead if you want to the first story, doesn't doesn't bother me.

All of my personal life updates are technically related to art history, but not entirely, so just I'll just get into them. Last week I teased that I was actually getting a brand new backpack for my camera gear. I got it!

Not without a story, though. I had placed an order on Amazon to get this backpack, not a sponsor, and I had ordered it from the company that actually makes it, Peak Design. I guess I'll just say, I don't know, none of these are sponsors, so whatever.

I ordered the backpack through Amazon, and it said Peak Design as the shipped by, like sold by, shipped by. I always, always, always quadruple check to make sure that it's actually from the company that I want to purchase it from, not from

Big Bob's Super Emporium or some shit like that. Like I always make sure it's from the actual person. And it was.

I ordered it, it arrived, I was super stoked because I actually had a brand new client that I was filming with and I wanted like I wanted everything to just like be perfect and like look professional and good. It shows up, I watch the Amazon driver walk up, come to my front door, leave it, I go out, I grab the box.

I'm so excited! I grab my little scissors, my little packing scissors. I open it up, and something immediately was off.

There was just a vibe. It was literally just the backpack in the box without any packaging around it. Mind you, I know that Peak Design is a very, very amazing company, just they make quality products.

I have basically all of their stuff already, but the backpack was the missing piece. We have the tripod, I have like the little pack to go things, just a bunch of different things.

So, I know what a Peak Design thing is supposed to look like, especially from the company on Amazon. I have ordered straight from Amazon before and gotten something. In the box, it's literally just the backpack.

It just It looks off, not only without the packaging, but just like the backpack itself looks off. Again, I couldn't tell you what it was, but there was just like a vibe to it. So, I open up the backpack because it's your like favorite shiny new toy and you want to play with it.

Inside the zipped compartment is a fucking snack-size box of Dots, the candy! Smashed in there! Not as a token of their appreciation, mind you.

It is literally just some random fucking box of candy. And I was like, okay, something happened, this is not from Peak, and I know it for a fact. So, I went over to Amazon, went into my account, and sure enough, wasn't actually sold from Peak, as it had already stated.

Like it was supposed to be from Peak. Like I know I selected it because of that, I'm very diligent with that. So, I went back to check in my account and it said shipped from Big Bob Super Emporium or something like that, I don't even remember the name.

Also, I don't want to drag anybody through the mud.

So, immediately get on support, figure it out, blah, I get my money back, send it back. But I was like, "Are you kidding me?" So anyway, at the same time I placed an order through the Peak website. It was already free shipping.

I don't know why I just didn't do that in the first place, but anyway, so I did get my backpack. TL;DR, I got it, it's safe and sound, it is amazing, it is beautiful. This one actually looks real, too.

I don't know, the other one just didn't look right. Like there was just something off about it. Actually, I can show you cuz it's right here.

So, if you do photography or videography or anything or you're just looking for a really cool backpack,

I highly recommend this. You'll see every fucking cinematographer or photographer with it, but it has these huge Oh my god, this is so not sponsored. I just think it's such a cool backpack.

But it has these like really big compartments and everything, so if you travel a lot, I mean, this can honestly just be your travel bag. Okay, so my next update I guess technically isn't an update for one of the stories that I talked about last week: Big Red Boots by MSCHF. I talked about them, go listen to how I feel about them and everything.

I teased that I was thinking about trying to purchase them. I spent so much time trying to figure out, "Do I actually want these? Do I need these?" Absolutely not.

Who needs these? Like it's such a fucking waste of money.

But in my mind, I was like, "Well, this is actually like an art piece." I don't know. There are a bunch of different perspectives you can think on it and everything, and it is a couple hundred dollars to purchase this pair of boots. I You could ask my boyfriend, Jeff.

I literally was just like, "I don't need to buy this. What the fuck am I thinking? Like this is absolutely insane.

There's no reason for me to own these. I am not a multi-million dollar collector or whatever. I don't have that much money to be expending on something like this." Like it's absolutely frivolous.

It's such a waste of money. But then in my mind I was just like, "You know what, fuck it. Let's see what happens, maybe I can resell them, whatever."

So, I go to click to see if I can actually purchase them, and I can! So then I'm like, "Oh my god, do I actually want to do this?" So, I did input all of my info, I put it all in and I was reviewing it and I was like, "Oh god, I don't know." And Jeff's like, "Well, just think about it for a second. You have a little bit of time, you don't need to make the decision immediately." And I was like, "Yeah, you're right." So, I wait a couple seconds, and I'm like, "Oh, fuck it.

I'm just going to do it and just see what happens. Whatever, we'll figure it out." And I click, and they're already gone! I had my little window of opportunity, I waited too long and, you know, I don't regret it at all, though, because that would have been almost $400 on a gimmick, essentially.

Like it's not It is a piece of artwork, it's like a performance artwork almost, I don't even know how to quantify it or classify it, that's still a substantial chunk of money to waste on something. I don't even have anywhere where I'd fucking put them. I guess I'd put them like right here or something, but I tried to buy them.

I almost had the opportunity, and then I chickened out, and then it just ended up working out in the end, so TL;DR, I don't have any Big Red Boots, but they were available, it looked like, which was wild to me. I genuinely didn't think I was actually going to be able to get them. So, I will not be stomping around in any Big Red Boots anytime soon, cuz also I was like I'd rather do something helpful to myself or somebody that I love with that money.

So, anyway, final update!

We're almost to the stories, don't worry. My final update, I this past weekend I went to Well, this past week on Friday, I went to the Salvador Dalí exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago. It was a member preview, so you could go take a look and see what it looks like before all the chaos.

It was interesting, I will just say. So, we made a whole day out of it because why not, we were already taking the whole day off, so just make it fun. We went to our favorite coffee shop, Sawada Coffee, go check it out if you're ever here in Chicago.

It's fantastic. They also have an amazing barbecue place, or I guess smoked meats, I don't even know. I would qualify it as a barbecue place.

They have an amazing restaurant within the coffee shop as well, so check that out as well, coffee and barbecue, it's like perfect, that's all I need. So, we went there, and then we got to the Art Institute, and you had to join a virtual queue just to keep everybody like moving so you didn't actually have to physically be there, so then you could walk around the museum and blah, blah, blah.

So, I ran over, there was a super nice lady also that helped us out, I didn't get her name, but she was absolutely lovely. If for some godforsaken reason you are watching this, you were very lovely and thank you so much for your help cuz I was trying to figure out the virtual queue, she's my little guardian angel. She helped me figure it out, and so then we just walked through the entire museum.

We saw the Beauty of African Art, I think was the title of the exhibit, that was fantastic, that was a really well done ex- like exhibition. So, we spent a lot of time in there, and then just walked around the rest of the museum. I spent so much time there that I'm like I'm not bored of seeing all of the artwork, but I've definitely seen all of it way too much.

When I was teaching at Columbia as well, all of my students would talk about all the different artworks that were in there, so it's kind of like, "Yeah, I get it, whatever." So yes, you can get bored of art, believe it or not. So then, we're just I'm watching my phone and I'm like, "Okay." We're like 200 Mind you, we started at like 285 or something in line, so we had a bit of time.

So, I was just watching it tick down throughout the day, and then we finally got down to it. Actually, I have a whole video, I don't know why I'm explaining all this, I have a whole video about it on my TikTok or on my Instagram or YouTube shorts as well, so you can check that out. So, we finally get into the exhibit and I'm very excited, like I am so excited, I've had this on my calendar basically since I got the newsletter from the Art Institute that they were going to offer this member preview, so stoked.

I mean, I even have the fucking Salvador Dalí Cookbook over here on one of our tables, so I'm very excited to go. And it's finally our time to go into the exhibit, scan the little member thing that they need, and then we go in: filled with people! I knew it was going to be crowded, I didn't think it was going to be this crowded, so that already kind of threw off the vibe.

Also, we got there a little bit later than I intended to, so I think they were just trying to push people through as quickly as possible. Tons and tons of people in there. A lot of people were just like sitting in there, not really looking at the art, but just talking to each other, which I was like, "Get the fuck out of here.

Like you're taking up space for everybody else," but I digress. One of the people actually that was sitting told Jeff that she would have cast him in a movie if she was a casting director, which I was like, "Oh my god." And she's like, "You're beautiful, your girlfriend's beautiful, too." And I was like, "Feels like one of those pity things where it's like, 'Oh yeah, you too.'" Where I was like, "Whatever." So, we get in there, and I had already seen all of the artwork that was in there.

It was a very small exhibition. I had already seen every single piece, so I was a little disappointed. Or I guess a couple, there were a couple that I hadn't seen before, but I personally was just a little disappointed because I had built it up so much in my mind, so it was my expectations.

But anyway, TL;DR, you should still see the exhibition because it was really well done. If you really love Salvador Dalí, you really should see it, so just that was just my own two cents. Again, don't build things up too much in your mind, because then you might be sad.

So anyway, still did a great job, Art Institute, I still love you no matter what, so anywho, those are all my updates, so let's just get to the show.

So, this is a huge story in the manuscripts, rare books, just everything world. This is amazing, this is a really huge story. The oldest, most complete copy of the Hebrew Bible is scheduled to sell at Sotheby's on May 16th, 2023.

Now, before I get into this story, there is an older Bible or Codex that is already known about, and it's called the Aleppo Codex, but more than two fifths of its pages are missing, so this is This is such a historic manuscript, and I'm going to tell you all the reasons why. Here we go. So, what we're talking about today is the Codex Sassoon, and it was named after the prominent collector that owned it, David Solomon Sassoon.

He was a prominent collector of Judaica and Hebraic different materials and manuscripts and things like that. He purchased it in 1929 for 350 pounds. So, this tome weighs 26 pounds and it measures 12 in x 14 in and is over 1,000 years old.

It's not exactly known when it was written, but it's believed that it was written sometime between the late 9th and early 10th centuries by one writer, just one specific writer completed this entire book. And this manuscript is super sturdy. The I believe the paper within it is parchment, is what I was able to find.

I thought it was going to be vellum or something, but it makes sense that it was parchment. And the Codex Sassoon contains all 24 books of the Hebrew Bible. It's only missing 12 leaves within this entire book.

It is massive! If you're watching this, I have the photos up, but if you're listening to this on whatever podcast platform, you need to look it up. It is a huge, huge, huge, huge manuscript and Bible.

One of the really cool things about this is that there's marginalia in it. So, marginalia is basically just people throughout history have written within the margins of this book. If you look at medieval manuscripts or anything like that, you will see a lot of times either people wrote their own commentary about whatever the story was that was in it.

I mean, a lot of times it was like a Christian Bible, but you would see people write their little commentary on the side, sign their name, draw really pornographic images. I shit you not, there are actually people drawing dirty little images within these sacred religious texts. Also, sometimes it was just actually built into the design already, so, anyway, blah, blah, blah.

So, there is marginalia in this Codex Sassoon. So, this marginalia includes ownership records, so people literally signing their name and saying "this is who owned it," like around this time period. There's commentary, musical notations, transcriptions, a variety of different things in there, which is really freaking awesome.

What's also really historic and amazing about this text is that most sacred books of Judaism were actually written on biodegradable materials, so the pages themselves, which is why so many different texts don't survive to this day, were written on like mostly plant materials and things like that, those degrade really fucking quickly, so they don't survive to the modern age.

I We do have an exception with like the Dead Sea Scrolls, not fully intact, but they were kept in clay jars, I believe, and just underground, so those survived amazingly. So, that is what makes this Codex even more phenomenal and amazing, is that it's 1,000 years old and it's survived this long. That's huge!

Like people really took care of this amazing Bible. This manuscript also highlights the broader transition from an oral like storytelling tradition to a literary tradition, so that is really fascinating. So, the Codex Sassoon, like I said, it's over 1,000 years old, has largely been kept in private collections throughout most of its life.

Because of that, it's also remained out of public view for centuries. It did show publicly, I think, 40 years ago about, but large majority of its life has been away in a private collector. So, it's really a historic moment to be able to see this come to live auction.

And when it's sold, it's been posited by people that this will be the most valuable historical document ever sold at auction. That is amazing! I want to swear, but this is like a religious thing, but it's just so cool!

It's estimated that this Codex is going to fetch anywhere between 30 and 50 million dollars at auction. A lot of auctions lately, when it's been suggested like, "Oh, this is probably about where it's going to be," it's gone way above that, so I can only imagine that this is going to go for way more. You're going to have very serious collectors of Judaica and Hebraic manuscripts looking for this, or even just historians and I mean it's it's amazing.

Like this is such an amazing manuscript to have available for auction. I would like to see it in a museum. You know my stance on this already if you've listened to me at all.

I would love to see it in a museum where, you know, the general public can go and pay homage and just celebrate the existence of this amazing book, but I digress. That's just me. Also, just to wrap up the story, I do want to point out that there's going to be a global tour scheduled for this Codex, beginning today, actually, through the 28th at Sotheby's in London.

Then it's going to go to Tel Aviv, Dallas, LA, and then New York City. If you're interested at all in viewing it, check out the Sotheby's website to learn more. Now, on to our next story.

Sorry, I looked directly at the camera. I always just quadruple check that everything's recording. I've had that happen before where I thought something was recording, and then it hadn't been for like the last 10 minutes, so I just wanted to double check.

Anywho, a series of structures, believed to be an elite housing complex, has been found on one of the seven wonders of the world, Chichén Itzá. This literally changes history as we know it, because up until this point, no known residences had been found within this ancient Maya city. This is huge!

This is literally, like I said, rewriting history. It's amazing! Enough hyperbole.

Founded in the 5th century CE, the city was one of the largest Maya cities and was ruled by Maya elite, while also serving as a place of pilgrimage for the ancient Maya. Roughly 2 million people So, today, in this modern era, roughly 2 million people visit the UNESCO World Heritage Site each year. And the entire area has been under exploration by UNESCO since 1998, and archaeologists at the site, Francisco Pérez Ruiz, stated that the housing complex that was uncovered, known as Chichén Viejo, represents, quote, "the first residential group where a ruler lived with his entire family." So, so far, what's been uncovered in the complex, it includes an entrance arch, the House of the Snails, the House of the Moon, and my personal favorite, the Palace of the Phalluses.

I'm only giggling because I'm a 10 year old boy in a woman's body, and I just find stupid things very funny. I'm very immature, I will be the first to admit that, but I really feel like Palace of the Phalluses or Palace of Phalluses should be the name of a strip club. And Palace of Phalluses could be a sacred religious site.

Again, I'm not laughing at that, I'm literally laughing at the name, cuz I know somebody's going to be in the comments and be like, "Why are you laughing?" I'm not laughing at that. I would not laugh at something serious like that. I am laughing literally because it's a house of dicks.

I find that very funny. You don't have to, I do, so let's just move on with our day. Anyway, in 2018, something else historic and amazing was uncovered on this site.

There's actually a second pyramid that was discovered deep within the famous El Castillo pyramid that's on the site right now, and that pyramid celebrates the deity Kukulcan, who is very similar to the Aztec deity, Quetzalcoatl, which I do want to talk about. Last month, some fucking idiot dickhead Polish tourist climbed the steps of said famous pyramid.

Not only is that super fucking illegal, that is also super fucking disrespectful. So, you are an asshole, that is just so blatantly rude and unnecessary. Anyway, and a couple other people have done that, too, which just fucking don't walk on it.

I think there was actually a lady that beat this guy with a cane at the bottom, and then he was apprehended by like the authorities and everything, and he has to pay a fine. I think you should just execute him right on the spot, personally, but that's just me. Anywho, back to the story!

So, now with the uncovering of this housing complex, there may be even more residential complexes waiting to be uncovered, that will literally, like I said at the beginning, I don't mean to be so hyperbolic, but this is seriously rewriting history. Like that is absolutely amazing to find out about this area. So, anywho, it's a very short story, but I just thought that was fascinating, because that literally provides so much more context to this the sacredness and the importance of this site.

So, anyway, on to our next story.

The famous painting, Girl with a Pearl Earring, might actually be a misnomer. This painting was created by Johannes Vermeer during the Dutch Golden Age of painting, and it depicts a young seated female. There are many different theories to who the seated person is, but right now, I think as it stands, this is what's called a tronie, or it's like an imaginary person.

Not like your imaginary friend that you had, or still have, no judgment, but it's literally It's not based on a real person, it's based on a fictitious kind of like idealized version of a person. So, currently believed by some to not be a portrait, it is a tronie, or a fictitious representation of a fictitious person. Real representation of a fictitious person.

There we go, got it. The background that surrounds her, I'm just going to give you a little bit of formal analysis, formal context, just formal analysis, just so you know. So, the background that surrounds her is basically pitch black, even though at one point it was actually like a dark green color, and so that makes her the central focal point because she's just very fair skinned, she's glowing, she's just She is literally the main focal point.

She does She is dressed in some quote unquote "exotic," as a lot of art historians have called it, clothing. It's very Orientalist, but that fits into the time period, but she's in a robe, it's like a yellowish kind of color, and then she has a turban on her head, again, very Orientalist, and she has this giant globe of an earring hanging from her left ear.

That is what we are talking about today. Pearls are very prominent in Vermeer's paintings. You can see a wide variety of different paintings where the female figures are either wearing like pearl earrings, a pearl necklace, blah, blah, blah.

But these accessories may not actually be pearl. So, a little bit of backstory to the context of when this piece was created. The Dutch Republic was reaching its like supreme peak both for trading, for letter writing, there's there's a lot of history behind it.

This was part of my graduate student work, and I absolutely found it fascinating. Like the Netherlands were becoming this massive empire at this time. Trade was expanding, unfortunately, in a lot of scenarios that was absolutely terrible for most people who were not the Dutch, or most people who were not European.

So, you know, there was a lot of goods being traded from various different places, so we can see that in this painting, both from the girl's outfit and also from her earring. Pearls at this time were extremely, extremely, extremely expensive, especially looking at the huge size of this freaking earring, it is massive. And pearls were expensive because they had to be shipped from South Asia to the Netherlands in the 17th century.

That'd take a long, long, long fucking time. So, based on the weight and the size of the pearl in this piece, it is extremely unlikely that Vermeer or any of the people who were in this painting, again, if this is a tronie, highly unlikely that he would have been able to afford the pearls that he painted in his pieces, likely suggesting that he actually referenced imitation glass pearls instead.

So, again, another super brief story, but that's just another theory that's been posited. I guess, technically, the name of the painting still fits, but I guess now it should be Girl with an Imitation Glass Pearl Earring or something. Stupid art history jokes, come here for them.

Anyway, on to our final story.

If you own a Balloon Dog Blue by Jeff Koons, its value may have just gone up. At the start of last week, there were 799 of them. At the end of last week, there were 798.

Apparently, at a VIP preview, nonetheless, in Miami for the Art Wynwood contemporary art fair, this really cute, 15 in tall blue porcelain sculpture smashed to the ground when an art collector knocked into it. So, really quickly, just want to clarify, there are a couple different series of Balloon Dog by Jeff Koons. There are the original like 12 ft tall ones.

I think they're 12 ft tall. I'm not talking about those because that would be That would actually be kind of amazing if somebody was able to break that, honestly. That would be ridiculous and wild.

But I'm talking about the little like newer kind of ones that Jeff Koons made that are like, I guess, 15 in, so about that. I don't know, whatever. To be fair about how this happened, this sculpture was placed on a clear acrylic podium that it was very translucent just from videos and photos that I've seen, and there was seemingly no extra protection around it, so it wasn't in a glass case, it didn't have a stand, it didn't have anything.

I get that if you think it's a VIP preview or something like that, you might think that people would not get too close to it, but again, you have to think. If people have been drinking or doing whatever during the day, nine times out of 10, some fuck wit is going to come and break your artwork, so I'm not entirely blaming the people who had this on view, but also you have to take proper measures to make sure that this really expensive artwork is kept.

Anyway, I digress. So, apparently, this is what happened according to somebody who was in the gallery at the time. A spectator states that they saw an older woman tap on the sculpture, and this spectator believes that they the woman was trying to see if it was actually real, or whatever, and if it was like a balloon animal, which, if you most people in art history field and in the world and collectors have heard of Jeff Koons, but I digress again.

So, the spectator saw this old woman tapping on the balloon and it immediately knocked and shattered on the floor. How does that happen? I just again, I can't believe that they didn't have some sort of protective case over this.

I feel like this is the gallery's fault, full force. Like, you should never be touching the artwork, I totally believe that, but you need to take It's like being pissed off that somebody ran into your car because you put it in the middle of an intersection. You have to be safe.

Like, you have to take certain security measures to make sure that your artwork is safe. Anyway, blah, blah, blah. So, apparently, when everyone heard the crash within the gallery, people came running from everywhere to see what had happened, and someone else in the gallery said that it was like a car crash where you couldn't kind of couldn't look away, but you were like, "Oh my god, what just happened?" Also, the previous spectator who saw the woman touch the touch the sculpture and then it shattered on the ground, they actually offered to buy the pieces that were shattered on the ground because they think now this piece has more of a story to tell, which I totally agree.

It's a little fishy, though. There's something doesn't feel quite right, which maybe this was like a publicity stunt or something like that. But could you imagine being that person that broke this sculpture?

If it was entirely on accident, I would just want to die. Or if I was even in that gallery and I saw this happen, I would die of secondhand embarrassment. I just would not be able to.

I would just change my hair, change my name, move to a very different place, like Mars or something. Attendees at the gallery also were left wondering if this actually happened or if it was a performance art piece, which is totally fair. I do have to admit it's a little unnerving, though, when we can't we're having more and more trouble separating reality from fake, but again, Oh my god, that's going to be a whole other tangent.

Maybe that'll have to be a separate podcast episode on its own, but it's just it's interesting where we kind of don't really know what's real anymore, and some things that are so unbelievable are just that, like they are truly unbelievable. It's hard to believe, "Oh my god, did this actually happen?" So, anyway, when Jeff Koons found out about it, he's very blase about the whole accident, which he has been before when things have been broken.

He's just like, "Yeah, whatever, it happens." So, thankfully, the gallery did not have a "you break it, you buy it" policy, cuz that lady would have been shit out of luck. Again, it could be a publicity stunt, but I don't know, I don't know what to believe anymore. I'm also very confused what's real and what's fake, so blah, blah, blah, anywho.

So, that will do it for this episode of By Amara. Sorry, this is a little bit of a longer one, but thank you so much for listening. I really appreciate it.

If you like the episode, please make sure to like it, subscribe, all the fun, wonderful stuff really helps, so I truly appreciate it. I appreciate you listening to me every week, or whenever you started joining. I love you, I hope you have a great week, and I will see you in the next one.

I'm Amara Andrew, never stop creating.