30,000+ artworks headed to the moon! 🚀

Hello everyone. Welcome back to By Amara. This is a weekly news show where we'll discuss some of the weird, strange, and just downright odd things that have happened in the art and history fields.

I'm your host and personal curator, Amara Andrew. This week is going to be out of this world, this episode. We're going to outer space twice.

So, get ready for that. This is also going to be kind of a longer episode. I have some really cool updates to start off with.

So anyway, before we get into that, this week we're going to be talking about

A very rare Christopher Columbus document that was repatriated from the United States to Italy, a series of capsules containing art headed to the moon, and the first transplanetary artwork that'll move forever in deep space around the sun that is being launched this year. So, like I said, a very spacey episode, so let's just get straight into the episode.

That was a little redundant, episode. Anyway, hello. Welcome to the show.

How has your week been? I hope it's been good. This has been a super busy week for us, not only like work wise, but just personal life wise and everything.

We went to the National Card Convention, which is like the largest sports card convention maybe in the world, definitely in the country. But it's a huge thing that happens here. I think every other year.

It's really fun. It's held in Rosemont, which is just outside the city.

I live in Chicago. And it's just really fun. It's just huge.

You have a lot of people who are very into sports cards. I'm personally not, Jeff is more so, but there was also Veefriends, which is something that I really like. It's by GaryVee and it's just really fun and he was at the booth like all weekend, so that was fun getting to chat and everything.

We also went to the Chicago Bears training camp yesterday, which is why this recording is going to be a day late. It was just crazy hectic,

But that was also very fun. You just get to see, you know, the Bears players train, I guess. It's just it's fun.

It's something they do every year and you just get to be part of it and see kind of the ins and outs and everything. And I don't know, it's just a fun little like day thing. It also is only an hour and 43 minutes long, apparently.

It's like a very specific time, so you have to get there on time. Anyway, I think that's all I have for personal life updates, but I do have, I think, three different story updates from this week.

So, the first update I have for you is about the De Brressi Tondo, which was this painting we talked about back in episode 20, we're already at episode 44, but basically the whole mystery surrounding it is who's the author? It's a very common thing in art history, it's like, well, documents weren't kept and blah, blah, blah.

So, a series of researchers from the University of Nottingham and the University of Bradford used facial recognition technology to identify the missing author, or the mystery author rather. So, the painting itself, the De Brressi Tondo, it depicts a typical scene in Western European Renaissance art, which is the Madonna and Christ Child.

So, the researchers actually took, like I said, facial analysis of both Madonna and the Christ Child, and they compared it to hundreds of different artists at the specific Western European Renaissance art time period, and they found that the facial features of the Madonna was 97% similar, and the facial features of the child were 86% similar to the work of Raphael, as I talked about in that episode.

They specifically, though, used the Sistine Madonna as their baseline, where they were just like, okay, this is like this is close enough. And I also talked about in the episode how

It would make sense if it was 97% or 86% similar because these artists had huge workshops or kind of biggish workshops where they had other people finish their artworks for them sometimes. So, sometimes it would be like this came from the workshop of Raphael or whatever. So, that's why it would be a little bit different if Raphael kind of started it and then he had somebody else finish it or vice versa, whatever.

So, that is why it's not like 100% accurate. Also, it's just not going to ever be 100% accurate, so you just never know.

But, to support this, there was also analysis done on the pigments to see that these were typical of early pre-1700s Western European Renaissance period. So, the combo of all these different analyses as well as just like looking at it and comparing it visually is what ultimately led to it being attributed to Raphael. So, the whole reason why I'm bringing this up is just because this piece is now on view.

I know that's like a lot of lead up to get to this specific part, but

This piece is now on public display for the first time at the Cartwright Hall Art Gallery in Bradford, England. So, you can go check it out, is I guess the moral of that little nugget. I do also have a an auction update for the Pteranodon we talked about in episode 42, so just a couple weeks ago.

So, I was super jazzed to talk about that in the episode just because I love dinosaurs, first and foremost, but this thing is fucking huge. It is massive. And, it's also a super rare skeleton,

Mainly because the bones of a Pteranodon are hollow and fragile, so they're typically crushed, so you don't get this entire skeleton. Also, mostly like most of the skeleton itself is intact, so that was also something that was super rare, like everything about it. Also, given its size, the body, I think, from the head to its little tootsies was 9 feet 9 inches, and then the wingspan is 20 feet.

This is This thing is fucking huge.

So, it's just amazing that this thing survived. So anyway, there's like minimal reconstruction that was done to the actual skeleton itself. It was mostly all intact.

So anyway, this thing went up for auction on July 26th, 2023, so just about a week ago, along with a bunch of other really cool stuff from natural history. Like, there was also a Plesiosaur that went up for auction. Like, there were just a bunch of different things.

It was really cool. So, this Pteranodon was estimated to go for between $4 to $6 million, and I have the results.

It sold for $3,932,000. Now, that's a lot of money. However, if it was estimated to go between $4 and $6 million, it's an interesting sort of look into the market because I read a couple articles recently that the art market itself has been tanking a little bit, just since the pandemic.

During the pandemic, like 2020 to 2022, the sales of art and luxury goods and things like that skyrocketed. It was huge, which I talked about actually last year, too. I did like a little summary of Sotheby's and Christie's auctions.

This, I think, is a really interesting sign of the current state of markets where people aren't spending as lavishly or as luxuriously as they were before, or investing in these kind of one-of-a-kind sort of pieces. I don't know. I guess this is also a very specific piece.

I mean, it's fucking huge. You have to have a massive space to put it. It's also not known who bought it yet.

It's not It wasn't immediately clear, but I guess if I did some digging, I could probably find it maybe. I don't know. I just I wonder if this is a sign of the times, so to speak.

We also talked about the Plesiosaur in that episode, and I said that I would give you an update. I actually didn't have an update for the price, so I'm not sure if it sold, if it didn't sell, but if there is a price, I will let you know in the future. Also, I was hoping I would have an update for the Namikawa Yasuyuki vase we talked about in episode 42 as well, but I could not find anything about it.

I couldn't even find an auction house where it was auctioned, so I'm not quite sure what's going on there, but hopefully I will have more information soon.

And my final story update for you also involves Beetlejuice. So, last week we talked about the Beetlejuice thefts. There were two that happened on set within about a week.

The first one was a lamp post that had a distinctive pumpkin decoration on top of it. That was stolen by an old GMC truck, it looked like. And then the second theft actually was this 150-pound iconic sculpture.

It's like when you think of Beetlejuice sculpture, it's exactly what you think of. It's the one that Delia made, and then it almost kills her and blah, blah, blah.

That was also stolen. So, this that was definitely It had to be a pre-planned thing, cuz like how the fuck are you going to move this 150-pound thing? Anyway, so those two thefts happened within a week.

Well, the following week, or a couple weeks rather after those thefts, there was yet another theft. So, this is the update, and it's very short. There isn't much known yet, or not much that's being shared publicly.

Six windows from the movie set's house were stolen from the storage location at a local Vermont ski resort.

So, the house itself was deconstructed after filming, and then the windows were donated to Northeast Slopes, I guess. So, again, like I said, that's literally the only update is just that there was yet another theft. Somehow somebody was able to track these and blah, blah, blah.

I don't know, it's very weird. Either somebody's a huge movie buff or they're hoping to make a bunch of money, or they're just fucking with somebody. But, either way, those were also stolen, so nothing's known yet.

I do have a feeling that it's like the same person/people, but I don't know. It doesn't really matter to me either way, but I just thought it was interesting. So, let me get into the stories.

So, I feel like I should preface this with a couple different things. First and foremost, yes, we are talking about Christopher Columbus and no, not the director, we are talking about the asshole. I know that Christopher Columbus is very problematic, blah, blah, blah, I understand.

However, I do want to talk about this document. It also feels weird to me to talk about repatriation in relation to the United States and Europe, not like non-European countries and everything, but we are talking about this today because it is really interesting. So, just getting those things out, first and foremost, Christopher Columbus was a douche and there we go.

Now, let's get into the story.

So, what we're talking about is actually items that have been repatriated from the United States to Italy four different times within the past year, and we're going to talk about why and how and all that fun stuff in just a second. First, what we are talking about is a super rare 15th-century document that was authored by Christopher Columbus, like I said, not the director, and it was pri- repatriated to Italy from the United States.

This version of the manuscript was stolen from the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana museum in Venice and it's super rare for a variety of reasons, as you can guess.

So, the first reason why this document is super rare is because in it Columbus describes his findings in the Americas and Caribbean Islands. Now, there are actually four versions of this letter, so that's why I teased it's been repatriated four different times. The first three have since been returned from the US to Italy to their respective institutions, but those are later versions and they address both the king and queen of Spain.

This version, which is known as the Plannck version, named after the publisher of the letters,

Only addresses the king of Spain in it. So, that also just makes it super rare. The original letter itself also was penned by Columbus, but then, like I said, it was sent out to a publisher in Rome, and then they sent out different copies and stuff like that, which also I do want to provide context to it.

The printing press only existed in Europe for about 50 years at this point, which is just wild to think about. I don't know, just like a random ass fun fact. The This specific version, the Plannck version, is estimated to go for $1.3 million or to be valued at that, not go for.

It's estimated to be valued at $1.3 million

Because it's such a rare item and a rare document. So, back to the theft. The theft is estimated by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, is just what I'm going to call it from here on out.

So, the theft itself of this particular version, Plannck version, is estimated to have happened sometime between 1985 and 1988, and what's unusual about this theft though is that, unlike other thefts of the Columbus letters, no forged document was put in its place, so it was just missing. There was no fake version of this letter that was put there.

In the other versions, they were in various different museums and cultural institutions and stuff like that. They had forged versions that were there and then somebody took a look at it and they're like, "Oh, what the fuck, this isn't right." So, allegedly in 2003, a collector, quote, "in good faith," had purchased this letter, allegedly not knowing that it was stolen, which maybe, maybe not, I'm not going to get into that though.

It's unclear how or why, but in 2019, it seems that this individual who had purchased the letter, contacted the US Attorney's Office, where experts were able to inter- determine that this was, in fact, the stolen letter.

I don't know if maybe a call was put out or something like that. I think in 2018, actually, one of the letters was repatriated to Italy, so I'm sure that was in the news and then somebody was probably like, "Oh fuck, that's what I have in my collection," or they were just like, "I don't want to get caught." Either way, I'm not going to go too into that, but eventually they contacted the US Attorney's Office and then they were able to determine, "Yes, this is the stolen letter." the person who had purchased it then voluntarily handed it over to the US government, who then negotiated its return.

The government employees traveled to Rome with the letter and then they had a whole ceremony and everything, repatriation ceremony.

TL;DR, moral of the story, all the versions of this Columbus letter are now returned back to Italy from the United States, so they're all in their original places. Hopefully, there's an update on who actually stole these cuz that's really interesting, and how they made the forged documents and all that. I don't know.

I would really like to know. But, at the end of the day, they're all back. Repatriation, Columbus sucks, the end.

So, on to the next story.

If you're an artist, would you want to put your art in a time capsule on the moon? Well, then the Lunar Codex project might be for you. Well, maybe, it's a very tricky sort of situation, but we'll talk about that in a second.

I keep teasing all these things, I'm so sorry. So, for backstory, what the fuck is a Lunar Codex? It's a project where the works of over 30,000 artists and filmmakers from 157 countries across all seven continents, yes,

They actually got artworks and things like that from Antarctica outposts, so all seven continents. All of these items are being placed in four time capsules that are then going to be launched and kept on the moon. Why the fuck are people doing this?

We'll talk about some other instances of this, but apparently according to the founder of this project, Samuel Peralta, quote, "The Codex is a message in a bottle to the future, so that travelers who find these time capsules might discover some of the richness of our world today.

It speaks to the idea that, despite wars and pandemics and environmental upheaval, humankind found time to dream, time to create art," end quote. It feels a little idealistic, however, and a little reductive, but I'm going to skip past that for a second. What inspired Peralta to do this was the fact that he was part of a different initiative called Writers on the Moon, where he actually contribute- contributed, rather, some of his writings, so this then inspired him to create his own version of the project.

So during COVID, all of us locked in our houses, lots of time to think. So he actually purchased his first payload space from NASA in 2020, and then since then, he's purchased way more payload spaces for these other launches that we'll talk about. So, this is created, I believe, it's by his company or rather another company that he's working with called Incandence, whatever, in associate in association with NASA's Artemis.

The company itself, Incandence, does a lot of tech stuff, but I also want to say their website sucks ass. It is horrible, which is kind of weird considering that the whole premise of this company is tech-related and digitization and digital preservation and all that kind of stuff. I don't know, it's really weird.

It actually feels a little suspicious to me if your website sucks, but you're a tech company. Anyway, for the project, there are four different capsules that are going to be launched to the moon, each containing various different artworks. So, the first one was actually already launched November 16th, 2022,

And the craft itself returned December 11th, 2022. For the next year, there are going to be three other launches to the moon of these artworks. The next one is supposed to happen October or November of this year, but as I read further and further in documentation and stuff like that, each voyage keeps getting pushed back, so it might take a little bit longer, but maybe at the beginning of next year at the latest.

So, what the hell is even going in these capsules? I mentioned artwork, but like what kind?

Well, first, I want to say that this project was really interesting because this isn't the first time that they've actually that people have sent capsules to the moon, obviously, especially containing artwork, which we'll talk about more of that in a second. But, what's interesting about this one is this there's actually a focus on including females and people of color in the contents of the capsule, so I thought that was really interesting.

They haven't really been included in past capsules. Also, I want to point out, too, that all artists still have original copyright over their artwork, so it's not like they're handing it over to this big corporation, they're like, " fuck you, we're putting it on the moon."

So, while there's a focus on visual artwork specifically, there's also a bunch of other stuff, just to kind of give you a really brief list, exhibition catalogs, art magazines, poetry anthologies, short story collections, songs, etc., and various different writings. There's even going to be a poetry collection created by Peralta, so the founder of this project, who he created it along with Osan, who's AI that's based on ChatGPT-2.

So, that's going to be an entire poetry collection, I guess, that's also going to be included.

They're also, which I found interesting, they're also not accepting NFTs because they don't view them as art. They view them as, quote, "certificates for artwork," which I thought was an interesting stance to take. I'm not entirely sure on the thought process of that specifically, but I would be very curious to know more about that sort of decision-making.

They are, though, including, how they see it, digital artwork. They're including examples of that also. So, I'm I'm just very curious where that line sort of is, like what is the idea, but anyway, I'm not going to get too lost in the sauce there.

This project also is completely free for creatives. However, you can't just submit your shit and be like, "Hey, I'm going to the moon." No, that's not how it works. This is a very highly curated collection, just like everything else that's been sent in capsules to the moon before.

This is extremely curated, extremely stringent, and Peralta said that he's very much focused on things of historical significance, so it's it's very specific who and what is being sent to the moon, which I guess makes sense, obviously.

On the website, there is no actual amount of artwork that's being collected. Peralta actually in the FAQ on the website says that he's lost count, so at least 30,000 artworks, but probably a fuck ton more. Like, think of 60,000 artworks just as like a healthy estimate.

How the fuck are you putting 60,000 artworks in these time capsules that are, I presume, small? Well, as I had said, the company Incandence, I'm totally butchering that, I'm so sorry, they're a digitization company,

So they're actually digitizing all of these artworks to a series of digital memory cards that can hold 150,000 laser etched microscopic pages of text or photos on one 8 1/2 by 11 sheet. So, a standard piece of copy paper here in the United States, that's what's going in the capsule. That's actually really fucking cool to me.

I wish Oh, my god. I was an archivist for a really long time, so that just jazzed me up, but that would be so cool to have if you just open a filing cabinet and it's just one thing. I don't know, it's really neat.

I also I love being able to touch the physical stuff, though, so I'm not too into digitization,

But for whatever, catastrophes and stuff, it's pretty cool. So, then I have the question: why are we so obsessed with putting shit on the moon? This has happened consistently since 1969.

It's really weird to me because also we're not really putting things that are necessary for human life. We're putting weird shit up there. So anyway, the first project appears to be the Moon Museum, which was put on the moon by Apollo 12 in 1969.

This was a small ceramic wafer that was etched by Robert Rauschenberg, David Novros, Claes Oldenburg, John Chamberlain, Forrest Myers, and Andy Warhol, and it was actually smuggled to the moon on the leg of the lander, I guess, which I thought was kind of fun. Yet another art object was brought to the moon. This one, though, was a lot more sentimental.

This was called Fallen Astronaut. It was brought on Apollo 15 in 1971, and it's a 3 1/2-inch-tall aluminum statue that was made by artist Paul van Hoeydonck,

I'm so sorry, and it was made to honor those who had died in space exploration so far, and there's like a little plaque that goes with it, too. That one was very sweet. It's a very modern sort of statue, so it's not like an actual astronaut.

It's it's really cool. I actually very much enjoy it, and especially the symbolism behind it. Then in 1977, there was also NASA's Golden Record, which includes a wide variety of different sounds, images, dialects, things like that, and also various greetings from ancient Akkadian to modern Wu, so it's just it's really interesting.

And then just recently, contemporary artists like Jeff Koons, Sacha Jafri, and Xu Bing have taken it upon tell- upon themselves to try sending their own artworks to the moon, some more successfully than others. So, now this is just going to be the latest project that is being sent to the moon. Like, there's so many projects that are being sent to the moon right now and it's really weird, which we're actually going to talk about yet another one in like 2 seconds with our final story.

But, I just couldn't help I was just thinking to myself like, I guess I go to dystopian future mode, first and foremost, cuz I was thinking if you're on the moon

And you find something and you dig it up, and you're like, "Oh cool, food!" and then you open it and it's like, "What the fuck is this? This isn't food," or like supplies or whatever you need. I'd be like, "Stop sending artwork to the moon.

We got enough art on the fucking moon. I just need food, shelter, maybe a blanket." That's all I need. I don't know, it's so weird because it feels, I mean, obviously, food will go bad, blah, blah, blah, I know, I'm not of that much of an idiot.

I'm an idiot, but not that much. It's just so weird to me that we keep sending culture to the moon or our versions of culture. It's

It's really weird. In the FAQ, Peralta actually talked about how cuz people have raised the question like, "Well, how the fuck are they going to listen to this? How are they going to watch this?

Like, what's the fucking point?" And he brought up a really good point, which I hadn't thought about. Like, assuming that whoever finds this, it's like 1000 years, hundreds of years, whatever into the future, we have figured out how to read ancient texts, ancient Akkadian, ancient Sumerian, ancient Babylonian, ancient Phoenician, all these different things, we've figured out how to read them based on, you know, Rosetta Stone, blah, blah, blah,

Or various other things, so it's not out of the question for somebody to be able to figure this out, but I just think it's so silly we keep sending art into space. Anyway, I love art, don't get me wrong, obviously, why the fuck would I be doing this podcast if I didn't, but I just think it's such a weird thing to send because it's not absolutely necessary for human survival, it's more for your like soul survival, I don't know.

I guess it'll make things better on the moon, but let's go to our third and final story and we'll learn more about what's being sent to the moon.

The first transplanetary artwork that'll move forever in deep space around the sun is being launched this year. That was a fucking mouthful. This is actually really cool, everything else we've talked about today so far is really cool, but this one is really neat.

Brazilian American artist Eduardo Kac, I'm I'm just going to say Kac, his last name is spelled K-A-C, but for the purpose of this, I guess I could say Kutz, I'm not entirely sure how it's supposed to be pronounced, to be honest, but we're going to go with Kac. Sorry.

So, this guy has allegedly been waiting three fucking decades to send this to space, and it's just now going to happen this year. Sending this to space is actually part of the artistic practice for his holo-poem, yeah, a fucking holo-poem called "Ágora", which is a type of holography. We're going to talk more about that, but he's not just sending that, he's also sending the remains of Star Trek's creator, Gene Roddenberry, and DNA from Presidents George Washington, JFK, and Dwight D.

Eisenhower.

We're going to talk a little bit more about why he's also sending them, but we don't really know why specifically them yet, but we'll talk a little bit more about that in just 1 sec. This artist, Kac, is known for his use of holography to create his artworks. One of the fundamental tenets of his holo-poetry is what he calls, quote, "anti-gravitropism," which is the use of language in a way that doesn't follow the perceivable effect of gravity on writing.

So to create "Ágora", which means "now" in Portuguese, he dipped a plate of glass in a custom emulsion and then shot through it with a laser to carve his work in 3D. He then trimmed down the plate to 1/2 cm square, and then when a laser is shown through it at a 45° angle, the word "Ágora" is projected in cyber green.

It looks really fucking cool. So, if you're watching this, obviously, you can see the photos. If not, go Google it.

It's really interesting.

Also, want to point out, too, the title "Ágora", his artwork, in Portuguese it has a small accent mark, the acute accent mark over the A, the first A, and that means that it refers to space. Without the accent, it refers to time. So, either way, it's really cool because it means "now," but it has different meanings and different connotations.

So, as I mentioned, this has taken three decades to complete. He created the artwork in 1986, which is why cyber green,

And he had the vision of sending it to space one day. Funny enough, over the past few decades, though, he's actually worked at SpaceX and the International Space Station. He even already helped create an artwork that was sent to space.

He sent instructions to an astronaut on how to create a sculpture using two pieces of paper. The sculpture is titled "Inner Telescope", and it was created in 2017 in space, and it's supposed to stand for "mieu", which is "me" in Portuguese.

With SpaceX, he also sent a nano-fish disc engraved with a bunch of symbols titled "Adsum", which is Latin for "here I am." The disc is supposed to be launched in early 2024 into space, so he's going to have a lot of space artwork, I guess, which is really neat. For his own artwork, though, he actually has an interesting viewpoint on it.

He's viewing his piece, "Ágora", as being, quote, "a piece of anticipatory space archaeology that would be discovered

By future rather than contemporary audiences." So, he's kind of also making his own time capsule, which is really interesting. We're all having this sort of time capsule moment, I guess. To get "Ágora" out into space, he is partnering with the company Celestis, which we're getting to why all the presidents and bodies and shit right now.

Their company, though, focuses on launching people's cremated remains and DNA samples and digital messages into space. That's a fucking company. If you hate your day job, you could send dead people into space.

That could be your job.

So, that is why I think he's including the remains of Star Trek's creator, and then all the DNA and stuff like that. I don't know how the fuck he got his hands on the cremated remains, but still interesting. So, he's adding his artwork, I guess, on to this, to then be like, "Hey, it made it out." I don't know.

It's it's really interesting. So, like the story we talked about before this one, this launch is also supposed to happen in 2023, but like I said, things get pushed back, things happen.

It'll be on the Enterprise flight, and will be Celestis's first deep space voyage. This craft is destined for infinite orbit around the sun and its path will lie somewhere between Earth and Mars or Earth and Venus cuz it'll it's heliocentric, so it's just going around the sun. The artwork is permanently housed inside a titanium-5 capsule that is secured within the craft.

For eternity, it's just going to be going around and around and around. How cool is that? Like, that would actually be very interesting.

I wonder if this is going to be if it's going to lend credence to other copycats and things like that in the future, but I don't know, we'll see. Maybe I'll send something into space, who knows? It's really fucking expensive, I'm assuming.

So, his whole hope for "Ágora" is that it, quote, "gives us a glimpse of infinity, a feeling of connectedness with that which cannot be known or measured. With the grand permanence and immense immensity of it all, it reveals the value of the fleeting and the significance of the imponderable,

Only to reaffirm the wonder of being there and now." So, I think that's a really beautiful way to wrap up this episode of By Amara. Let me know if you want to have interplanetary Let me know if you want to have interplanetary, rather, artwork. It's just really fascinating.

I think it's such a cool way to, you know, forever memorialize yourself. It also is fascinating seeing how many people are obsessed with this idea of legacy, which we all are because death is scary and blah, blah, blah, but I think it's fun because now we're

Doing space archaeology. We're just putting a bunch of shit out into the atmosphere, which I don't know, at the end of the day, it is weird, but I think it's cool. So, anyway, if you like this episode, please be sure to like it, subscribe to hear more in the future, or if you hated it, I'm so sorry, and I hope your day is good.

Thanks for hanging out for a little bit, and as always, I'm Amara Andrew, never stop creating.