Ancient Roman eats / Art insurance skyrockets / ATM permanent displays your balance / Elgin Marbles being returned?

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 the show that I typically follow, that I typically don't follow, actually, 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, two something news, and one something borrowed, stolen, but you know how I do it.

Blah, blah, blah.

So, this week we're going to be discussing what ancient Romans ate at sporting events, art insurance mirrors climate change, that was like a mild tongue twister, an ATM that tells everyone your bank balance, and the Parthenon/Elgin Marbles, however you know them, might be going back to Greece. So, we have all that and more coming up on this episode of By Amara.

Let's get to it.

Stumbled through that, didn't I? Was a little choppy. But anyway, how are you?

Welcome back to another episode of By Amara. As you can see, it is Christmassy holiday times behind me. I think you can probably see a little bit, if you're watching this.

If not, my house looks like Christmas threw up on it. We're actually in the middle of decorating right now. It's so annoying.

So, last week, this is just my own personal life, what's going on,

Last week, we got a new couch, and IKEA said that we were supposed to get the cover, cuz like how our couch, we bought a new couch, it's a sectional, so it's sold in sections, and then each section has a cover to it. Well, we were supposed to get the cover for it last week, last Friday. Then it didn't show up, then it didn't show up.

It was even supposed to be before that. It was a while ago we were supposed to get it, and then it kept getting delayed. So, Jeff and I always talk about this, where it's expectations are the thing that will, like, let you down no matter what.

So, we were expecting it to be here on one day,

And then it didn't show up. So, anyway, TL;DR, we are in the middle, still, of having a couch assembled. Our couch is half-assembled, which is really weird.

One of the arms isn't even on it because it's supposed to be like a chaise lounge sectional where it makes like an L. I'm making an L shape with my hands in case you're listening to this. So, it's supposed to look like that.

So, hopefully, next week it will be done, and then we can also finish decorating, cuz it's kind of just like, we're just on pause right now, so we'll see. Anyway, I'm not mad at you, IKEA, you've done a lot of good for me, I guess, and for a bunch of other people who want moderately priced furniture, but it is really fucking annoying.

Anyhoo, besides that, I do have two updates. So, the first one has to do with all the climate activists that have been throwing shit on paintings. I think there have been about two dozen different cases of these climate activists throwing things on paintings and like, gluing their hands, and just a bunch of fucking wild shit.

I'm glad they haven't gone to bodily fluids yet. However, this week, the spokesperson for Just Stop Oil, which is the group, the spokesperson for the group, Alex De Koning, or Koning, however you pronounce their last name,

Has said that the group is considering stepping up their antics to now slash paintings to get their message across. In case you haven't heard about what they've been doing with artwork, they've been not like fully defacing, but like throwing soup on random paintings and throwing just a bunch of different things on famous artworks and gluing their hands to them and blah, blah, blah.

Now, they might start slashing them. Alex actually said that they're taking a page from the book of suffragettes, which, if you've ever heard, if you've ever heard about this, Mary Richardson, who was a well-known suffragette, she actually slashed Velázquez's Rokeby Venus with a meat cleaver.

I don't know. I fucking hope not. I guess that isn't the end of the world if that does happen.

Like, it doesn't kill anybody. It'll kill me metaphorically, I suppose. But why art?

Like, that is what I want to know. Why these famous paintings? Like, it's clearly not working, so what are you trying to accomplish?

Anyway, blah, blah, blah, this is very alarming. Also, if somebody walked into a museum with a meat cleaver in their hand or backpack,

I wouldn't think the first thing that they were going to do was going to be slash a painting. I would think that they would be coming after, like, people. So, that's scary on a whole other level.

Like, I don't want them to hurt people. And you don't know how people are going to react. If they see somebody coming toward them in a meat cleaver with a meat cleaver, even if it's toward the painting, blah, blah, blah, this is going to get real out of hand real quickly.

So, that is just the update for that. The next update, it's kind of like an update to an update. A couple episodes ago, I talked about how a Vermeer painting actually turned out to possibly not have been made by Vermeer.

So, this piece, Girl with a Flute, was from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

They claim that this piece actually wasn't made by Vermeer because they compared it to another piece that's in their collection, Girl with a Red Hat, or Woman with a Red Hat, I think it was Girl with a Red Hat. They stated that the Girl with a Flute painting was not created by Vermeer. It might have been in his workshop or, like, someone close to him who studied his work, but it wasn't actually made by him.

The Rijksmuseum, however, though, they are like the foremost Vermeer institution, and they claim that this actually is by Vermeer. So, you have these two institutions, like, going head to head about this issue. The Rijksmuseum is choosing to show Girl with a Flute as having been by Vermeer in their latest exhibition.

So, it's kind of like, "fuck you," National Gallery,

Which the National Gallery is like, "whatever." That's kind of what's going on. It's a little drama, but juicy, I guess. I don't know.

So, yeah, so the Rijksmuseum is totally like, "You're out of your fucking mind, we think that this is a Vermeer." Those are my only two updates. So, now we will get on to the show. I don't know why I just did that.

Ancient Roman Spectator Snacks Found at Colosseum

If you're watching this, I'm so sorry.

Have you ever been to a sporting event? When you went to said sporting event, did you get something to eat? What was it?

Did you get like chips, pretzels, hot dogs, cookies? I don't even know what they sell, actually. Nachos, beer?

Well, if you were in ancient Rome, you would have gotten something very, very different. This past week, archaeologists at the Colosseum have found the remains of some 1,900-year-old food that, it was found in like the drainage system of the Colosseum. Archaeologists found the remains of 1,900-year-old food in the drainage system of the Colosseum.

These were fruits, nuts, and meats, and this possibly indicates what spectators enjoyed while they were watching people die in front of them or watch animals die in front of them.

I personally don't think I would have had too much of an appetite, but, you know, you do you. So, the excavation work started in 2021, and archaeologists, apparently, found, quote, "traces of olives, nuts, meats, cherries, grapes, figs, blackberries, and peaches." So, if you were ever wondering what an ancient Roman ate, there you go.

So, additionally, archaeologists also found bronze coins as well as the remains of a bunch of different animals in these drainage systems, including lions, leopards,

Bears, chickens, pigs, and small dogs. So, these are likely the remains of animals that fought in the arena, and then they just died, so then they were just dragged off to the drain, I guess, and to get drained, I don't know. There was also, which I found really fun because it's Christmassy time right now, as I'm recording this, there was also even evidence of evergreen plant remains that were found in the sewers as well.

So, it's believed that ancient Romans actually used evergreens to, like, decorate the Colosseum. So, I just thought that was pretty cool. I guess I didn't really have any ideas of what people ate at, like,

I think about what ancient peoples would have eaten a lot more, I think, than most normal people do, just because I'm like, well, yeah, what did they have, actually, available at that time? What did they make? Like, did they have cheese?

Did they have milk? What kind of, like, what did you, I guess I'm focused on cheese. I'm like, you need cheese.

You don't need cheese. Or you can if you'd like. I just, I guess I never think about, well, they're going to a sporting event, I'm trying, I'm classifying these types of events as sporting events, even though it's, like, very different than what we think of today.

Could you imagine, I talk about this with my boyfriend Jeff all the time, because he loves football, I think I say it every week or maybe every other week, could you imagine if, like, let's just say football, because he likes football, in football, if you actually died at the end, like if your team

Did not play well and you lost, you got killed, you got sacrificed, that would fucking change the game, wouldn't it? Like, if that was where the stakes were at for this game, I think people would play a whole fucking lot better, and I think Tom Brady probably would have retired by now if that was how it went, or he'd probably die by now, honestly.

I would watch that, I'd be very curious. I don't think I would stay around for the blood sport necessarily, but I would just be curious to see how it went, I guess. But then, I guess it would become normal, I don't know.

I'm having some purge thoughts, but TL;DR, I have thought about what ancient peoples would have eaten a lot of times, but I never thought about events like this, or like gatherings and things like that, but it makes sense because if you're just sitting there hanging out, you want to maybe eat something if you're okay with watching people die in front of you.

So yeah, just, I guess, that is what you eat when you watch people die: olives, nuts, meats, cherries, grapes, figs, blackberries, and peaches.

So, this one isn't super sexy of a story, but this is our something new. Art insurance around the world is expected to rise in conjunction with climate change. And we can specifically see this in Florida right now.

So, this is something that is a really big issue for a lot of different art-related institutions, and also just museums in general. Like I said, though, specifically in Florida, because they have not only hurricanes, but also flooding. So, art insurance is typically bought by, like, art museums, galleries, and art collectors to help protect not only against, like, theft and, like, damage to the piece if it travels around the country or whatever, or if it's exhibited in public, but also for natural disasters and things like that.

So, like LA definitely with wildfires, or like the whole California region. And then also Florida, those are like two big hotspots of places that have a lot of shit going on that can damage art. And in this article I specifically read, they were talking about the large amount of art collectors that reside in Palm Beach and Miami.

So, those are like major hotspots for flooding and hurricanes, which is a really big deal. After reading this, this was actually really alarming, which I know that climate change is a huge problem. So, I support the climate protesters who are protesting using famous artwork, however, I don't support their methods, if that makes sense.

But between 1980 and 2021, there was an average number of 7.7 weather and climate disaster events. And that's just in the US. The annual average, also, in the US, though, for the most recent 5 years, so 2017 to 2021, is 17.8 events.

That shit's getting wild. And I know I don't need to tell any of you Floridians that twice. So, because of this, premiums are expected to rise consistently to match the denser quantity of, like, weather and climate-related disasters.

So, if you want to own and buy art, your insurance is going to go through the roof, which then that also causes galleries and museums, so if you're a small independent gallery or something like that, you need to be thinking about this. Even in the Midwest, like thinking about tornadoes and all that wonderful bullshit. Just everyone, sorry, I hit my microphone, everyone everywhere needs to think about this because this is a really big deal.

And with more climate change, you're going to have a lot more things happening, clearly, obviously, duh. So, just get ready for that because then the costs are going to go to the galleries, which are then going to go also to the museums, and then that cost is going to go to you, the collector, or you, the person who's going to visit these things in museums.

They have to defray the cost somehow, so everything's just getting more and more expensive. I ordered groceries today, and I was really upset, just side tangent. It was so, it felt like it was so much more expensive, and I got less for it.

Granted, there are definitely some things I could have done without, and I totally understand that and know that, but it just, it feels like things are constantly getting expensive, and we actually don't really buy that many packaged goods. It's mostly just, like, meat and vegetables. That's like all we eat, basically.

So, it just, it's getting a little expensive, so everything's getting expensive. Blah, blah, blah. And all of this climate change isn't just, obviously, a Florida problem or a United States problem.

This is across the globe. You can see it in Amsterdam as well. You could see it Venice in Italy.

Just literally everywhere. So, the more that the, the more that climate change is happening, and the worse that things are getting, the more costly things are going to be for everybody. I know that sounds very selfish, but that is, like, a really big thing, and maybe that would actually make people take it seriously, but I doubt it.

Speaking of Florida, we are going to be talking about Art Basel that just happened in Miami. This was a really fascinating piece. I wish I could have gone to Art Basel this year.

It just didn't work out for us, unfortunately, for a wide variety of stupid fucking reasons. At Art Basel every year, there is this, and specifically talking about the Miami Beach Art Basel, there's always that one, like, showstopper piece. So, a couple years ago, it was Comedian by Maurizio Cattelan.

This year, though, it was a really amazing piece that I actually found through Diplo's TikTok. I follow him on TikTok. He is fucking hilarious.

So, if you're looking for somebody to follow, you should follow him. This year, the showstopping piece was ATM Leaderboard by MSCHF. And no longer do we have to look at one another and size each other up and see, "Oh, I wonder how much you make," or, "I wonder how much you're worth by your worth by, like, what you're wearing or just how you look." This little ATM tells us.

So, if you want to search for it on TikTok, you can. There are a lot of different videos circulating around. So, this is how the machine works.

You would walk up to it, insert your debit card into the machine, like put your PIN into the machine as well, and then the machine, as it's pulling up your account information, which I have no idea how this actually works, I have a lot of questions about this, but, essentially, what would happen is then the machine would take a photo of you, which there are a lot of pinball machines that do this now, just FYI, I am a, I really like pinball, and they'll take your photo when you get a high score without you knowing, and then you're like, ooh.

But this ATM also does the same thing. So, then it puts your photo up next to your bank balance, and then the machine either tells you if you are rich as fuck, I think they give you like the little Monopoly man or something, or they tell you that you are broke as a yoke and they give you like a little toilet flush or something.

It's something like so mean. It's like, I already feel like shit that I'm like barely scraping by, you don't have to tell me that I'm a piece of shit, too, like literally you showed me a toilet, thank you. And when the machine isn't in use, I guess, it's constantly, like continuously flashing, not like quickly, I'm making it look quick if you're watching this, but it's consist- it's consistently showing the person's photo and how much money they have in their debit card account, or in their bank account.

Granted, I would like to point out, not everybody keeps all their money in their checking account. Maybe they have a savings account or a separate account, cuz a debit card is very specific, so just FYI, just to give everybody a little bit more cushion for their bank account, like maybe some people just have all their money in something else, and they only keep a couple hundred dollars in their checking or whatever, so just FYI.

So, it's definitely a philosophical question in this machine, which I think is actually very perfect for Miami, where everyone is, I mean, it'd be perfect in LA, too, or just anywhere, really. Everyone's putting on this show of, "Oh, this is, I have this much money, and I have a ton of money because I have this designer and that designer, and I drive this and I do that," which whether or not they're actually all rentals or they actually own them.

This machine doesn't fuck around. It'll actually tell you verbatim, this is what this person has in this account. Like I said, they could have their money in various different things and assets and investments and stuff like that, but it's just looking at this one account.

I think it's a really interesting idea. I think this would be a very interesting thing to just have on the street, and, actually, this artwork was bought by a Miami collector for $75,000, and they intend to display the work in a way that the public can interact with it. I would like to recommend just keeping it in South Beach, like keep it on Ocean Drive or something like that.

Then people who are fucking around and pretending that they have a lot of money will actually be very embarrassed when their friends or people around them convince them to put their cards in there and then they have like $2 in their bank account or something. I don't know, I feel like everybody needs to be humbled instead of acting a fool.

Also, I want to point out, too, according to MSCHF artists who were there actually like watching this whole thing go on, not a lot of people stepped up to the plate. Like I said, Diplo did, which you can see it on his TikTok, but not a lot of people wanted to go, like, get berated by the machine. I think it was a very humbling sort of experience, cuz normally people want to interact with something and be part of it, and especially if you get your photo taken, like, that's kind of cool, even though we all have like our phones, and we can take photos in any sort of capacity, but people still want to be part of something.

So, I just thought that was really interesting. I really like that machine, and I definitely want to have these just everywhere where you can kind of call bullshit on people, like anybody who wants a sugar daddy. You should be able to have one of these, kind of like a little handheld one, like a stripe, sort of not a Stripe payment, but like those one, those little things that you get from your server after you're done eating, you should be able to get those and have a guy, like, plink, and then you can see his bank account.

I don't know, I think it'd be fun. Anyway, let's move along.

Our final story for this week is something borrowed/stolen. So, this I think is really good news. A couple weeks ago I, or I don't think, this is very good news.

A couple weeks ago I talked about a series of items that are actually being repatriated to Turkey from the United States. They're there. It was really great.

Apparently, this has been going on for a while. The British Museum is currently in talks with Greece to return the Elgin Marbles, and it goes by Elgin or Parthenon Marbles. I'm going to call them the Parthenon marbles, personally.

So many P's. I am going to call them the Parthenon Marbles personally just because Elgin is not the actual name of these pieces. Elgin is the name of the person who illegally removed them from Greece, so I'm going to call them Parthenon Marbles for the sake of this, but just you know, Elgin Marbles, Elgin Marbles, Parthenon Marbles, same thing, same.

So, these marbles, like I said, were illegally removed from Greece when Greece was actually under the jurisdiction of the Ottoman Empire. So, Turkish people, Turkish officials were just like, "Yeah, here, Lord Elgin." This happened in like the 1800s, I think the early 1800s, and Lord Elgin was over in Greece doing fuck all, like whatever people did back then.

And he got a permit from the Ottoman Empire who said, "Yeah, go ahead, like whatever," for Greek items, because they were owned by the Ottoman Empire, so big clusterfuck right there. So, this has been a really hot button issue for a very long time, almost not like since it happened, but a very, very, very long time. Greece has been like, "Hey, we didn't have any say in the matter.

Can you please give those back?" And so now, apparently, this has been going on for a couple years. Negotiations between the museum chairman, so the British Museum chairman with the Greek Prime Minister have been taking place since November 2021. And an insider has said that the agreement is 90% complete.

So, there's still 10% that needs to be figured out between these two parties of, I'm assuming it's just logistics at this point, what needs to be figured out. In an article that I read, though, it says that the situation is complicated. Apparently, there is an act by the British Parliament that prohibits the museum from selling, giving away, or otherwise disposing of any items in the collection unless they are duplicates or not needed for study.

Now, I think that act can definitely be looked past, or, it can be amended, I would say, just because this is such a very specific instance that needs to be rectified, first of all. Like, this is something very different. This isn't just like, "Oh, we have two Mona Lisas or something in our collection.

We need to get rid of one of them." Like, that is just not how this goes. So, this is a very specific instance that things need to be done well and according to what is just right morally speaking. So, I think that we can kind of look past that act.

It doesn't have to be verbatim, or just make an addendum to it or something like that. So, I, I personally don't think that should be a huge issue. I've no idea, I'm not in fucking Parliament, obviously.

I don't have a wig on. So, I am in my festive Christmas black, though. Anyway, so I think that can be something that can just be easily just fixed.

So, I know that there's still a lot of work to be done. Like, that 10% is going to be a lot of work, but I really hope, maybe within a year or two, or however long, I don't have a date yet on when it's like this could happen, but, hopefully, that is in the process, which would be really amazing that these things, like this has been one of the biggest cases of repatriation that's been discussed, in addition to like the Koh-i-Noor diamond and a bunch of other things, which I talked about that in I think episode two.

So, that is really amazing. I really, really, really, really, really hope this happens and, like, goes through as it should, and then, hopefully, this can lead the groundwork for a bunch of other things to happen, too. So, until then, we will just stay optimistic and positive.

All right, so that'll do it for this episode of By Amara. Thank you so much for watching, watching. Thank you so much for watching your body, and thank you so much for watching me.

Hopefully not at the same time, but you do you, I don't want to know. Anyway, I hope you liked this episode. If you did, please make sure to like it, subscribe because then you'll get notified every time I post anything, and I know you want to see my lovely face all the time.

And if you are watching this, that is. And, yeah, so, anyway, I'm Amara Andrew, and never stop creating.