Ancient civilization rediscovered // NFTs in art museums?! // The Mona Lisa was stolen! // Andy Warhol involved in a murder?

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

The format for the show that we typically follow that I typically don't follow, but I will kind of follow this time is one traditionally used by Western brides. Something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue. This week, though, we are going to have one something old, one something new, and two something stolen, actually stolen this time.

And this is going to be a super juicy episode. This week, we're going to be talking about an ancient civilization rediscovered, NFTs bought by a large museum, the Mona Lisa was stolen, and how Andy Warhol actually might have been involved in a murder. All that and more coming up on this episode of Buy Amara.

Let's get to it. So, as you can still hear, this is definitely a different episode. We are still here in South Beach.

We will be returning in the next couple days. Bleah. It has been wonderful.

I've loved it. I definitely don't want to go home, but, you know, got to go home. Got to go back to normal life.

Bleah. And I just want to say thank you so much to those of you who have inquired about my Patreon. I really appreciate it.

Even if you're just curious, like thank you so much. I do have a Patreon now, so if you want to support the show, no pressure as always. Like I say, but you can.

Link is in the description below. This past weekend was Art Deco Weekend like I talked about. And like I said, we just so happened to be here in Miami Beach for that, and I've always wanted to go.

It was so fun. Unfortunately, it was so cold. I wasn't ready for that.

We were both dressed for like 80°, and so we had to go buy sweatshirts and jackets like just because it was so freaking cold. So, we didn't really get to take too much advantage of like Art Deco Weekend and everything like that. But what we did see was really fun.

They had a classic car show, they had dance instruction, and stuff like that. We got to see Cab Calloway's grandson perform here as well, which was really cool. There's like a whole like 1930s-style soiree and just like a bunch of different things.

So, it was really fun. If you are into Art Deco at all, I highly recommend it because it was really neat. They had a bunch of different lectures, too, but they started early in the morning and I am not a morning person.

Otherwise, I would have gone. That was really fun, and we also did a tour. I'm going to be posting a video about that really soon, so check out my channel for that, hopefully within like the next week or so.

And then we did like a whole walking tour, which was fun, and got to see like the insides of some buildings and stuff like that. So, yeah, so that was Art Deco Weekend. Also, unfortunately, I don't have any other updates for our stories, so I think we'll just get right into the show.

I'm still trying to imagine what my music sounds like. It's funny. You think after all these times, I would actually remember what my music sounds like?

I have a pretty good idea, but I don't quite remember, so I'm just ballparking it. So, our something old this week, a previously unknown ancient civilization has been rediscovered. So cool.

Construction workers in the Russian city of, and apologies as always for mispronunciations, Krasnoyarsk, I think, I'm sorry, so construction workers in this Russian city were bulldozing a giant mound when they noticed something odd. It wasn't just a giant mound, it wasn't even a hill, it was actually a massive burial chamber.

It was actually a 2,000 year old massive burial chamber to be more specific. Archaeologists were called to the scene like immediately to check it out because you kind of have to when that happens. Otherwise, I think you'll get sued, or something will happen, I don't know.

Either way, archaeologists were called to the scene and they figured out that this kurgan, which is what it's called, I guess, for the burial chamber, was from a culture previously unknown. This culture though actually was really similar to the Scythians or Scythians, I'm not quite sure how to pronounce it, which maybe actually my boyfriend, Jeff, and I were talking about it, that actually might be the influence for the board game Scythe.

It's a really fun game if you like board games, so check it out. And the Scythians or Scythians lived in Crimea in the area north of the Black Sea 2,000 years ago. So, this culture was similar enough to the Scythians, this like mysterious burial chamber, but it wasn't exactly the same.

So, not only were skeletons found in this chamber, but also a bunch of like sacred artifacts and weapons. So, hopefully, that can kind of provide more context to this mysterious hidden civilization. So, there are also two other things that are really interesting about this mound.

The first is that it was sealed and burned so that it was just hidden away, which is why it took until now 2,000 years later to be able to find it. But also, the mound was actually surrounded by additional burial pits as well. So, that's kind of cool.

It's kind of like Stonehenge almost. I think they have like those little mounds that are in like a giant circle around it. Archaeologists have been working on the site since 2021.

So, hopefully, they'll be able to figure out like some sort of context clues sooner or later. But that's all I got for that. I just thought it was really cool that there's a mystery culture and there could even be one right under your feet.

Our something new this week, love 'em or hate 'em, NFTs might be coming to an art museum near you. That's right. This week, the SFMOMA, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, they actually acquired their first NFT.

And they aren't the first museum, but I'll get more into that in a little bit. The work that the SFMOMA just acquired was from artist and filmmaker Lynn Hershman Leeson, and is called, quote, "Final Transformation #2." There are two editions of this NFT. One was auctioned off by the SFMOMA for a fundraising thing that they have.

I think it got like $9,000 or something like that. So, that is now in a private collection. The other version though is now in the permanent collection of the SFMOMA.

So, the NFT in question is a clip from Leeson's 1997 movie called Conceiving Ada. And it features Tilda Swinton, who stars in the role of Ada Lovelace, a Victorian mathematician who wrote the very first computer program. Pretty fitting subject for an NFT, hence why it was turned into an NFT, probably.

And in addition to this NFT, the SFMOMA also has a couple of Leeson's other like photographs and multimedia art and stuff like that in their collection. So, like I teased at the beginning, though, the SFMOMA isn't the first museum to have a bunch of NFTs or to have an NFT in their collection. Some other collections that have NFTs are the Institute of Contemporary Art in Miami, so, here, like 20 minutes from where I'm sitting, the British Museum, the Universal Hip Hop Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Uffizi, who actually theirs is a little bit different because they made NFTs of the Michelangelo painting that they had in their collection, but still have NFTs available, I guess.

So, when I was reading about this, I was asking my boyfriend, Jeff, who's nicely holding the camera right now, I was just asking him like, I wonder what the future of a museum is going to look like, cuz if it's going to be this juxtaposition of having, you know, like screens and physical art, are they going to be next to one another?

Are they going to be separate? Cuz like, I don't know. I could see in the future if museums are just worried about theft and things like that, if they're just like, "Well, no, we'll actually just have this famous painting on a screen in the gallery." But I could imagine people would be really upset because then it's like, "Well, why would I even bother coming to your museum?" I don't know.

There are a lot of different questions. I'm sure museum workers, they're very smart, they can figure it out. I'm just very curious to see what a gallery of NFT art is going to look like, cuz that'll be really interesting.

You're just going to see the screens, or if it's even worth going to a museum. Let me Actually, let me know in the comments below. Do you think it would be worth going to a museum to see NFTs in person, or would you rather just look them up in the comfort of your home, cuz you don't really have to leave?

I'm curious what you think. So, let me know in the comments below. I think I would want to see them in person just because I would want to be around people possibly.

I don't know. I actually I hate being around people, even right now. I'm like, too many people.

At the end of the day, I don't really know. I would just be curious to see what that what that experience would be like to go in person and see these screens. I don't know, I'm just blabbering on and on and on, but let me know in the comments below, would you go in person to go see NFTs whether in an art gallery, an art museum?

Let me know.

So, our first something borrowed/stolen, which is something stolen this time, the Mona Lisa has been stolen is what a viral TikTok falsely claimed. Relax, the Mona Lisa has not actually been stolen. However, this is a really great practice of how misinformation can spread and be viral and have everybody panic the fuck out if you care about art that much, which I do, but that's just me.

So, last week, the user @narvanator? What? Last week, the user @narvanator?

I have no idea. I am losing. So, last week, the user @narvanator posted a video showing a succession of police cars that looked like they were headed toward the Arc de Triomphe, and they wrote text over it saying, quote, "POV: Your," which they used the wrong "your", "POV: Your in Paris when the Mona Lisa has been stolen," end quote.

So, people freaked the fuck out in the comments. They're like, "What are you talking about? What do you mean?" And then people eventually caught on like, "Oh, this guy's just being a dingus." So, this person then posted a follow-up TikTok claiming that they'd visited the Louvre with friends and then said, quote, "She's gone.

The Mona Lisa is gone. We spoke to the staff there, and they can't say anything." Like I said, of course, this was a hoax. The painting is still safe and secure in bulletproof glass at the Louvre.

So, don't worry. It was stolen once before in 1911, but that was a very long time ago and museum workers kind of got it together after that. That was That's a whole other story.

I'm not going to get into it, but if you're curious about it, you really should look into it because it's pretty fascinating. It's really interesting, too, because the Mona Lisa is such an iconic piece of artwork. It's been attacked, I think it was actually just attacked last year where a piece of cake was smeared all over the front of it, but because it's in bulletproof glass, it was totally fine.

But it's just interesting that it's always the target of having people have some sort of reaction to it. You either love the Mona Lisa or you hate the Mona Lisa. And I actually I think that's a really good artwork is if it makes you feel something whether you love it or you hate it.

And I feel like most people when they go to the Louvre I haven't gotten to see it in person. I'm hoping to soon one day. But I feel like most people when they go see the Mona Lisa, they are so disappointed because it's so much smaller and then you have like a billion people around you, which like I talked about last week, the Louvre is cutting its attendance, so if you want to go visit, you better figure that out.

So, TL;DR, the Mona Lisa is not missing. It is safe. It was just a total TikTok hoax.

Total TikTok hoax. I feel like that should be like a shirt or something. So, it was just a hoax.

Don't worry. I know you were super, super worried. That's why you came here a week later to learn about it, so don't worry.

Okay, on to our next story.

So, for our final story this week, this is really juicy, I promise you. This is going to be This is like the pièce de résistance. So, this is our final story, our something stolen part two or number two.

A man who may have murdered his wife is also accused of stealing real Andy Warhol paintings and then selling fake ones. This is such a loaded story, so buckle up. It's going to get intense, but I promise you it's worth it.

So, first we're going to talk about the fake artworks, we'll talk about murder later. We'll end on a murder note. This guy, Brian Walshe, he is the main character of this story, he sold two fake Warhol paintings to the Revolver Gallery in LA in 2016.

And this is with the help of his wife, Ana, so she'll she'll come up later. So, they listed two pieces that they claimed were from Warhol's 1979 series Shadows and they put them on eBay for a total of $100,000, which, right away, that should be a fucking red flag. But, no shame.

People get duped all the time. So, in the listing, he claimed that the pricing for them was only $100,000 because he had terribly overpaid for them at auction at Christie's in 2007, and that he was selling them both for only $100,000 because it was cheaper and easier to sell them versus having to wait the following year to sell them at Christie's again, cuz then you have like auction fees and stuff like that.

Like, it makes sense. It's a pretty good it's a pretty smart lie, but it still feels really weird. But, I'm not shaming the people at Revolver Gallery.

I'm just saying, it's a little weird. So, to further elaborate upon this to make it seem real, he also stated that he was in dire financial need, so he was able to charge so little for them. Like I said, the Revolver Gallery in LA, unfortunately, they fell for this ploy.

They flew out to Boston, which is where Walshe lived, and they ultimately only paid $80,000. I guess he was just chopping down the price. I guess one of the assistants who went in to meet him, it was at like a hotel or something, they went in, they took a photo of the image, or of the painting, sent it to their boss who was waiting in the car, and the boss was like, "Yeah, that looks good." And then they took the paintings, but then, once they got like a closer look at them, they realized, "Oh fuck, these are not real at all." When they noticed this, they demanded a refund from Walshe.

After a lot of back and forth, because Walshe obviously was like, "Well, no, I'm not going to give you your money back," the gallery was able to get $30,000 of the $80,000 that they originally paid. The gallery also contacted the FBI to be like, "What the fuck is happening?" cuz like they wouldn't hear from Walshe for long periods of time.

Upon investigation by the FBI, they found out that Walshe actually had two original Warhols, so he had real ones. But, he had stolen them from a friend of his that he met at university. So, how did he get them from his friend at university?

Well, apparently, he had told this friend that he was able to sell them for him, but Walshe ended up just keeping them, and his friend never got them back, never got his money back, and that happened with a lot of other artworks from this friend as well, so not a good judge of character, but again, if you get duped, I can't blame you.

So, then Walshe was able to take photos of these original Warhols and then make fake ones to sell off to people to get money. Okay, so now, I teased a murder at the beginning of this story, so let's get back to that. So, his wife, Ana, who I talked about earlier who was helping him do these fake dupe things, was declared missing January 4th by her company.

What's that saying where it's like, "Two people can keep a secret as long as one of them is dead"? This is feeling a little suspicious, and it's even more suspicious because Walshe was arrested for violating probation. But then, because the FBI was already investigating him, they found some fucking wild shit.

They found blood in the family basement as well as a damaged knife. They also found, which I don't know if this is real or not, it feels like too ridiculous to be real, but this is what they also found. They found that Walshe had recently purchased $450 worth of cleaning supplies at Home Depot and, this is what makes me think it's fake, he had just recently Googled, "how to dispose of a 115-pound woman's body." Either this is the dumbest fucking person alive, or this is a ploy to like I have so many thoughts.

Maybe this is like a ploy to like cover the tracks of where she actually went if she fled to like some other faraway land or something like that, like California? No, I'm just teasing. But if she went somewhere totally outside of the US to hide from authorities, and if he's protecting her, or if he actually did kill her.

Either way, it is a wild story. I also I can't help but wonder if Andy Warhol would actually like being in the middle of such a juicy, murderous scandal like this. I don't know, I feel like if he was around, he might be tickled at least a little bit by it.

Anywho, we will never know. Thank you so much for tuning in. Again, this was a very different episode of Buy Amara, but next week we will be back to our regularly scheduled programming, unfortunately.

Boo. No. But thank you so much for tuning in, and I hope you enjoyed this episode.

Please like and subscribe, and all that wonderful goodness. It does help a lot, so if you can do it, I really, truly appreciate it, and I love you very much if you do, so thank you. I love you either way, but thank you.

Check out my Patreon, like I said, if you'd like to help support the show. If not, totally get it. Whatever floats your boat.

And yeah, with that, toodles from South Beach. That was stupid. Anyway, I'm Amara Andrew, and never stop creating.