Old Master painting SAVED from TRASH!

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

I'm your host and personal curator, Amara

Andrew. Fuck. This week, we are talking about a party so lit, people received severe eye burns.

One of the rarest stamps in the world just went to auction and it sold for a crazy

Price, and then an old master painting that was thrown in the trash. So, get ready. That is what we are talking about this week.

I just realized I pressed record and I 100% was not ready to start. So, forgive me. This week I want to try to do this episode all the way straight through.

So, normally I have edits, like if you watch the show, you can obviously clearly tell that there's some pretty fucking hard cuts in there, but this week I want to try to just do it all the way through. We'll see how far I get with that, because I will definitely need a second to compose myself, because I'm just rambling like a lunatic right now.

Anywho, hi. Yeah, sorry. This is turning into a not weekly news show.

Things have just been super crazy busy, and I know I say that basically every single week, but genuinely, my business has just been taking off, and I cannot like, I need to have priorities, and this is just like a fun extra thing for me, so I'm so sorry. I love you, but I just I need to

Prioritize certain things in a certain way. So, this is the part of the show where I normally do updates, so it's like personal life updates, and then just updates for the stories. I do have two, I believe, four stories, four stories, and 7 years ago.

So, that is happening. Personal life, what happened? What day is it?

Okay, so it's the 25th Oh, Thanksgiving just happened. I hope you had a lovely holiday if you participate in it. Okay, good.

I am recording. I was like, fuck. Yeah, I hope you had a good Thanksgiving and I hate the holidays, personally.

I just I don't really like this time of year, and there's a lot of stress and pressure on having family together and all that fun, wonderful bullshit, and my family is

Not great, so I just I don't I didn't spend the holidays with any of my family. I don't know if I should even leave this in, to be honest, but it's just a very stressful time of year for me and I genuinely hate this time of year. So, not only is it dark at like 3:00 p.m., so in like just a few hours, but then also the emphasis on the perfect, wholesome, good family, and then no one's family is like that, and just if your family's really fucked up like mine is, then it's just a lot more stressful.

So, anyway, I hate this time of year. I hate the holidays and it's like the most depressing time of year for me, but that said, we are going to Miami tomorrow, which I'm very I'm already in Miami by the time this comes out, so woohoo! Party time!

I absolutely love Miami Beach, and like my boyfriend Jeff and I go there all the time as often as we can, so we have like a few days that we can actually go there right now, in between all the client stuff, which is very exciting because I now have two clients who we are flying to or traveling to, who live in different parts of the country here in the United States, clearly.

It'd be cool to have an international, client. That'd be really sick. But, for my business, it's called Mayven and I help, real estate professionals make social media content and shit like that.

Like, it's a whole thing. So, you can look it up at whatismayven.com if you're at all curious. But anyways, we're starting to travel for different people, which is really cool.

And I'm so excited, because these people are just like so awesome and, I don't know, it just makes me happy. I get to do two of my favorite things, which is travel and then get to hang out with awesome people, so I'm just very excited to get the ball rolling. So, anyways, we're starting off in Miami, and then the two following weeks we're traveling, so it's a lot of travel and then we have a wedding when we get back, and then it's Christmas, and then

January I don't know. I don't even know what's going on, but, anyways, my calendar is filling up very quickly. So, I'm trying to keep a consistent schedule for Buy Amara, but it's just got a everywhere, so, again, apologies.

Oh, I did actually get my hair professionally

Done. Normally, I was just cutting and coloring it myself, just because I liked the practice of it and or like the meditative practice, I would say, and then it was just, I don't know, I got to just try different things and whatever, but now I'm just sick of it and I'm just like, I just want it to look okay, cuz like it was looking fried and not super great and you could clearly tell that I was doing it by myself.

So, I ended up doing that and then Jeff said that it barely looked any different, which I was like, well, that's fucking great to hear after I just spent a couple hundred dollars, but I digress, the end. But, yeah, my hair, I guess, doesn't look that much different, but, I don't know, I kind of thought it did, so I digress.

I guess I don't really look at myself that often, so, anyways, I think that's it for updates for me, or do I have anything else in my calendar?

I don't even know, you probably just skip ahead on this part, which I don't blame you. Oh yeah, we've just had a lot of filming. Oh, we went to the Christkindlmarket on What the fuck is that?

I've been talking to a lot of people, too. I just see, talk. Yeah, we went to the Christkindlmarket on the day that it opened.

So that's here in Chicago, it's like a little Christmas market, a German Christmas market, that opens, which I am part German, so I enjoy it. You can enjoy it no matter what. But, so, it's just this like super cute little Christmas market that's based off the one in Nuremberg, Germany, which is like the oldest Christmas market, and, I don't know, it's just really fun.

It's a bunch of different booths and you can get Glühwein. They also have non-alcoholic ones if you're not drinking, so I had that. It's called Kinderpunsch, which I really enjoy, which is just like kids' drink.

And it's just like a hot spiced wine. It's really good.

Then you can walk around and look at all the different things. We bought a little Krampus doll, which is super cute and it's like this little stuffed animal. I don't know, I really enjoy it.

I love Krampus, and I need to see the movie still. I'm just fucking rambling, but, oh, and then we ended up running into my aunt and my cousin randomly at the Christkindlmarket. Like, I had no idea that they were going to even be there.

I didn't even know my cousin was in town, so that was really fun. We got to hang out for a little bit and just talk and whatever. Anyway, blah, blah, blah, I think that's it for updates for me.

I'm just like thinking of all the different things I need to do, so sorry, I'm a little distracted. But, like I said, I have two story updates. So, the first one has to do with, back in episode 30, we talked about a guy named Michael Morello and he falsified payments to employees from 2007 to 2020 at the Art Institute of Chicago.

He, apparently, funneled, what was it, 2.3 million dollars from the museum. I just said, there's a podcast that I listen to, it's JRVP, and the guy Greg Rosenthal, he says museum or whatever, and it's really weird. Anyway, so, he funneled roughly the $2.3 million that he took from the museum into his own bank account.

So, he like falsified payroll funds, and then he went so far as to keep a spreadsheet of the transactions in order to later make reversals in the payroll system to conceal his transfers, which is very convoluted and complicated and just why even bother. So, he was the former payroll manager at the Art Institute, so obviously, this story hits home for me because I live in Chicago and I love Art Institute, and I used to work there, also.

So, anyway, he pleaded guilty to embezzling funds from the museum, so now he's been sentenced to 3 years in prison, and he's expected to pay back roughly the 2.3 million dollars that he stole. At his sentencing hearing, according to a couple news articles, he allegedly looked, quote, "Visibly distressed," which, yeah, who the fuck wouldn't?

Like, I don't know, that just felt so stupid. But, like, obviously you're going to feel fucking distressed. Or, I guess,

If you're not sorry, you wouldn't be, I don't know. I feel like I would look very visibly distressed, I would be a fucking hot mess. And then in at his sentencing, Morello stated, quote, "I truly apologize for what I did.

The Art Institute was good to me, and I took advantage of that," end quote. So, I thought that was nice, I guess. So, his sentencing did fall below the recommended minimum of 4 years in prison and the maximum 20 that was cited in court this past spring, largely due to Morello's health.

He does have he had a broken neck as a teenager, and then since this investigation began, he actually had to get one of his legs amputated because of gangrene, which is really not great, obviously, I don't need to be the one to tell you that. So, he's been living in an assisted living facility after being abandoned by his husband of 20 years and his family because of this whole scandal and everything, which does make me a little sad, cuz it's like, I don't know, isn't it supposed to be in sickness and in health or what This is why I don't believe in marriage, just because it feels very false.

Anyway, I'm not going to go down that rabbit hole, you do you, whatever you enjoy. So, yeah, after the story broke, everybody just basically left him, which is very sad, honestly. So, now he'll spend his prison term at a medical center due to his health issues, and then after that, he'll be, have supervised release for 3 years, so that's the update for that.

I don't know, I do feel bad, it just, I don't know,

My little heart. So, then the next story update I have is in episode 29, I first discussed Okay, so, I first discussed it in episode 29 and then I had an update in episode 46, kind of just like the super basic cliff notes of this story, is that there was an exhibition of Basquiat, Jean-Michel Basquiat, paintings at the Orlando Art Museum, and about 25 of them were believed to be fakes or forgeries.

But, then it's alleged that people within the museum knew that this was going on. There was a whole FBI investigation going on before these were actually shown at the art museum, so that's also what made it be like sketchy, like, well, then why would you show these if you knew that there was an investigation? So, it's a whole big thing.

So, the auctioneer who sold them, I think he was an LA based auctioneer, his name's Michael Barzman, and then, the Orlando Art Museum director, Aaron De Groft, they were the subject of a civil lawsuit that was filed by the museum, accusing them of making these forgeries, and then also having them be displayed in the museum to increase their value, and then to be able to sell them after exhibition.

So, that was the whole scandal, I guess you could say. So then, Barzman did end up, the auctioneer, he did end up pleading guilty to helping forge the paintings. He didn't take full ownership, he just said, "Well, no, I might have been part of it." and so, he's been sentenced and he now has So, his sentence is 3 years of probation, 500 hours of community service, and then a fine of $500, which feels, I don't know, it feels pretty low for an art crime.

I guess art crimes don't really have that big of punishment, I guess. I don't know, that just feels extremely low, but anyway, so now we're talking about the director, De Groft, who, he has filed a counterclaim, citing that, the allegations are, quote, "a damnable and demonstrable lie to scapegoat," end quote, the former director for its own failings.

He then also specifically places the blame on the museum's former chairwoman, Cynthia Brumback, who he claims approved the exhibition, even though she knew about the FBI investigation surrounding these artworks, which she also then stepped down or, resigned from the board last December because some other trustees complained that they actually hadn't heard anything about this FBI investigation, even though she knew about it.

So, it's this really fucking complicated story, but essentially, at the end of the day, the director is saying, "Well, no, I literally should not have to take blame for this. I shouldn't be involved in this because I was just an innocent bystander," which whether or not that's actually true is always a subject for debate, but whatever, that is not my job.

I couldn't give a fuck less. Oh, I do care, but it's just I'm not involved in it. So, the director, so, De Groft is seeking $50,000 for irreparable injury to his reputation, so we'll just see where that goes, but it's just like very he said, she said kind of, which I guess is just how it's going to go.

But, anyway, let's just get into our stories. Also, if my energy seems low, besides the holidays just sucking dick, I have been decreasing my caffeine intake. This is just, well, cacao does have caffeine, but it's a different type of caffeine from coffee, so I'm trying to not have as much coffee, because I was drinking like 100 cups a day.

So, anyway, let's get into our stories.

Today we're going to talk about a party that was so lit, some people actually received severe eye burns. And yes, this is a true story. So I've definitely talked about NFTs a lot on this podcast.

I myself have been involved in NFTs, both collecting and creating and blah, blah, blah. So if you don't even have to be in crypto or NFTs to know about Bored Ape Yacht Club. It's very common, everybody knows about it basically, cuz it's like the project that people think about with crypto.

So, Bored Ape, every year they host something called ApeFest. This year, it was a total shit show from beginning to end, but, mostly just because it was hosted in Hong Kong, which it's like, who the fuck can get there? But anyway, so, they hosted ApeFest in Hong Kong from November 3rd to the 5th, and that basically it's just a party that's open for Bored Ape Yacht Club holders and then also Mutant Ape Yacht Club holders.

So, you can register for a ticket, I think. I think it's only one per person, even though if you have like 50 apes or something like that. I'm not 100% sure cuz I don't have one, but I don't know.

An estimated 2,200 people, or 2,250 people, attended the event in question, and that includes both staff and then just, participants and attendees. So far, which as of this recording, this is so far, it could just be way more by the time this actually publishes. But so far, 15 people have stepped forward claiming that they, have severe eye irritation and eye burn.

Some people have even posted to Twitter, or X, I don't know, what to call it now, about having to go to the in Hong Kong because their eye pain was so bad. One such attendee, his name is Adrian, I'm so sorry, I'm going to butcher your last name, Adrian Zduńczyk, who's founder and CEO of Birb Nest, which is like a crypto platform, I believe.

He posted that he, quote, "woke up with severe eye burn," end quote, and said that he was diagnosed with photokeratitis after attending the emergency room in Hong Kong, and he posted, a photo of his actual bill there, too, and then it just had like all the diagnosis and stuff like that. So basically, he had sunburn to his eyes, because the UV lights in ApeFest were so intense.

So, I'm not 100% Oh, and later he posted that, he doesn't have serious cornea damage, so I guess that's good, cuz then it's not like something forever. So, I guess, at the event, they had these huge screens I should tell you what the fuck I'm even talking about. Apparently at the event, they had these huge screens that were so bright that people were like blinded by the light.

No, no, no, no, no. And that sounds terrible. Like, that sounds absolutely horrible, just to have it be that bright, which I couldn't even fucking imagine looking at something that bright, but I digress.

I mean, my light here is bright, but it's like literally not that bright. Like, my corneas are going to be fine. I know you're worried about my corneas.

So that's what I'm talking about. It was like a series of different events throughout the main event, I think. I'm not 100% sure though, obviously, because I was not there.

So then, that was one person who suffered damage. Another person who goes by the name CryptoJune on Twitter, they seem to have had a tougher time though, stating, quote, or writing, rather, "I woke up at 04:00 and couldn't see anymore. Had so much pain, my whole skin is burned.

Needed to go to the hospital. The doctor told me the UV of the lighting of the stage did it. It has the same effect as sunlight," end quote, which is wild.

Like, how fucking bright are these lights? Are regulations okay for this? Like, also, I do have to wonder, why was ApeFest in Hong Kong?

Cuz I think last year, it was here in the United States, I don't know, it just feels very sketchy. So then, Yuga Labs, who owns Bored Ape Yacht Club, they released a statement to Variety, stating, quote, "Yuga Labs is aware that some attendees are reporting eye pain, vision issues, or skin irritation after attending ApeFest.

We are distressed by these reports, as nothing is more important to us than the health and safety of our community, many of whom we spent significant face time with over the weekend," so, that's that. They're also further investigating the reports, quote, "alongside our ApeFest vendors and contractors to identify the potential sources of these issues," the rep said.

"We will provide updates as soon as we can. Any impacted attendees are encouraged to reach out to us via social media DMs and share information about their experience and symptoms to assist our investigation," end quote. This is fucking nuts.

How do you have lights so bright that they are blinding people? And also, that feels like then it was a significant duration of time, I think. I mean, I don't know.

I know eyes are very sensitive, mine are extremely sensitive, but that just something is not right, it just feels very weird, obviously, which is why we're talking about this. So, anyway, a super brief story, but there will definitely be some updates to that, because also Yuga Labs has just been in a shit ton of hot water from various different dealings that they've done, so this is just the latest in the story of them, so, anyway, that's it for NFTs, so let's just move on to our next story.

Attention all philatelists, yes, that is a real word, it means stamp collector, one of the rarest stamps in the world just sold for over $2 million. What I love most about this story is it's teaching you to embrace your fuck ups, and to embrace your imperfections, which I very much love. I'm a huge supporter in that, just if you have something that doesn't quite go to plan, roll with it, pivot, and then you'll figure it out.

So, a rare Inverted Jenny stamp, which I'll tell you more about the background of this, this is actually really fascinating, this story got me into wanting to collect stamps. I actually have a friend who collects stamps and he makes, he sends me these really beautiful postcards, and he does calligraphy, too, so he customizes the postcard with the stamp.

It's like a whole little story, it's beautiful. So, good job, Mike. But, this really made me want to start collecting stamps, because they're literally just miniature works of art.

Like, it's perfect, it's the most minimalist art collecting you can do, but it's worth a fuck ton of money, or it can be. That's why I love postcards, also, just because the art on it is just, I don't know, it's just really fun, and I like just how it's a social sort of thing. Like, it's in the public sphere, but it's mostly meant for private consumption, but you can still read it.

It's not like a letter that's sealed in an envelope, it's publicly Anyway, I can go on a whole tangent, I love postcards, so maybe I will be into stamps. Anyway, so, a rare Inverted Jenny stamp sold at auction hosted by Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries.

So, here's a little bit of backstory to the stamp and why this is so fucking cool. On May 13th, 1918, the United States Post Office issued this commemorative stamp, that's a hard word, issued this commemorative stamp to mark the first official airmail flight. This little stamp, which was 24 cents, which I'm going to talk about how insane of a number that is, in just a second, this 24-cent stamp features a Curtiss Jenny biplane, surrounded by a red frame, and it's done in very patriotic colors, red, white, and blue, blah, blah, blah.

Throughout the 1910s, the United States Post Office was trying something different where they were trying to encourage using airmail to ship letters and things like that. So, one of these early trials of doing airmail was actually captured in a stamp before this stamp was produced, rather. Sorry, I'm just tripping over my fucking tongue.

But an early trial was captured in an early stamp, released 1912 to 1913, so then that's why this other commemorative stamp was released. Little did they know they'd make one of the most like rarest stamps in history on accident. The stamp I said was released May 13th.

That was a very specific date because on May 15th, 1918, is when the post office was actually officially announcing this, delivery system, or this airmail system that you could now use. The post office set a controversial rate of 24 cents a stamp, which in comparison, for a regular first-class mail stamp at the time, it was only 3 cents, so that would literally be the equivalent of having like now, stamps are 66 cents for a regular just post letter, whatever stamp, that would be like spending five bucks on a fucking stamp right now to send a letter, nuts.

But, I think just because it would get there quicker, so it made sense in the time and it's kind of cool because it's like, ooh, it's by plane, which is like this new thing. The service itself was meant to go between Washington, D.C., Philly, and then, New York City, so it was just supposed to be a fun kind of thing, and like I said, it's patriotically printed, but something went wrong during the printing process, which is what we're getting at right now, which is what makes this stamp so rare.

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing rushed this order, because like I said, May 13th was when the stamp came out, May 15th was when they were announcing the actual production of being able to send your mail by plane. So, the engraving of this stamp only began May 4th. May 4th, that's less than 10 days before this was supposed to be mass-produced for people.

Literally waiting until the last minute. So, engraving began on May 4th, the stamp printing started May 10th, just 2 days before the stamp was set to debut, and then a couple days after that was when they were announcing it. Since the stamp was already printed, sorry, since the stamp was printed in two colors, each sheet had to be placed on the printing press twice, which is what, actually had resulted in previous stamp errors, both in 1869 and 1901.

So, obviously, something went wrong with the printing process, and it's estimated that there were at least three misprinted sheets that were caught during production, and then those were destroyed. So, only one sheet of stamps made it through, and this is what has made this literally one of the top five rarest stamps in existence.

So, initial deliveries of the stamp were sent to various different post offices across the country on May 13th, and many collectors were actually aware that this was an issue that happened with printing, so they stormed the post offices to buy these new stamps in hope to catch one that had the errors. One such collector, like I said, all of them were destroyed except for one sheet, and one collector, William T.

Robey, was lucky enough to purchase the only sheet that made it through, which is where this these stamps come from, so there were 100 stamps in this sheet when it was originally produced. The sheet itself has been broken up throughout time, obviously, because then various different collectors can own it, and then pieces of it have been auctioned off, which is what we're talking about today.

So, if you actually want to see some, I think the National Postal Museum in Washington, D.C., which is like part of the Smithsonian, they have a couple of these on display, and then also fun fact, the stamp was even featured on season 5, the season 5 premiere of The Simpsons, so another fun fact. Back to this modern time now that we're talking about the auction, the stamp itself that was auctioned was reviewed by experts and was given a 95 out of 100 score.

So, the scoring system is like 10 out of 100, or 10 to 100, rather, not 10 out of 100, that'd be a shit stamp, but 10 to 100, so 95 out of 100, basically perfect. It was deemed, quote, "Mint, never hinged," which means that it was like literally in the same exact shape it was when it was sold, what, 105 years ago? This stamp sold for $1.7 million at auction, and then after taxes and fees and stuff like that, it put it just over $2 million, which is crazy.

This same auction house, Siegel Auctions, they actually had sold several other Inverted Jenny stamps throughout history, throughout their history, rather. In 2005, they sold a block of four of them for $2.7 million, and then, they also sold another single mint, never hinged stamp for $1.35 million. And also, just in June 2021, Sotheby's, separate auction house, they sold a block of four of these stamps for $4.86 million, including fees.

This block of four though, was actually estimated to sell for between $5 and $7 million, so this was a little bit lower than the estimate, but I mean, that's still pretty good. I just thought that was very fun. I love having the I love when the most expensive and the rarest things are actually the things that are like fucked up, quote-unquote, because it's just fun.

Like, I actually like putting more value on something that's deemed defective, quote-unquote, again, with all the quotes. I, guess I just like bunnies, but I really love that, cuz, I don't know, it feels very inspiring, too. Like, if you mess up on something, like, let's say you're a printmaker, and you're doing silk screen printing, and then something doesn't turn out properly, that one is very unique because it is not perfect, as is deemed perfect, I don't know.

It's a whole, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I really like it. I It's funny, because even for specific things, like I do enjoy the thing that is the most unique, so I do like the thing that might not be entirely perfect, like the object itself, cuz then it's like, no, this one's unique because it has this piece isn't there, or whatever, so, I don't know, and it's just very fun seeing an airplane upside down on a stamp when it should be right side up.

I just find that very funny, so I very much enjoy it. Also, just to wrap the story up, you might be wondering, what's the most expensive stamp that has ever sold? The most expensive stamp, I went down a whole stamp rabbit hole, which I was like, okay, I might need to start collecting stamps, so if you collect stamps, what do you collect?

So the most expensive stamp ever sold was a red revenue stamp from the Qing Dynasty in China. So, that's like circa 1878 or so, is when this specific set of stamps is from. What sold was a block of four, so four little stamps, and a sheet of 25 separate of these red revenue large dragon stamps.

They're very beautiful, I love them. I have a photo up if you're watching this. This was sold in 2009 for $17,400,000, which for inflation now, that's like what, 20 something, $28 million, maybe?

I have no idea. I was just trying to do it in my head, and I hate math. So these are currently the most sought-after collectible stamps ever in history, largely because they're so rare, but also because they have a beautiful overprinting.

So, they have this really pretty red background to them and then it's overprinted with, I think it says like a doll, I don't have an image up, I'm trying to remember what I saw, but it's really pretty. Yeah, so if you're into stamps at all, I guess look for an Inverted Jenny, or if you have lots of money, then look for an Inverted Jenny.

But, I just thought that was very fun. I love the idea, like I said, of having this cute, little, tiny piece of art, like that is just so much fun. I love tiny, little, miniature things, obviously.

At the Art Institute, if you ever get a chance to go, you should check out the miniature Thorne rooms, total side tangent, because that is so cute. It's just, this woman, I think her husband kind of helped, but it was mostly just this woman, very wealthy, had lots of time on her hands, and she would make these really beautiful dioramas of various different historical rooms and things, and it's very history accurate, also, which is, I am obsessed with.

So, anyway, blah, blah, blah. Most expensive stamp in the Not most expensive stamp in the world, one of the most expensive stamps in the world, just sold, $2 million. Super cool.

Go check out stamps. It's fun. On to our next and final story.

Just like I talked about for our last story, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and that is exactly what happened, in this story. So, when you don't like something, you'll just throw it away, cuz you'll be like, "Oh, I don't need this anymore," or donate it. Nowadays, you'll donate it, but before you would just throw it away, blah, blah, blah.

And that is exactly what happened to a Cimabue painting. This is fucking wild. The Louvre has just acquired a Cimabue painting, and I'll tell you who that is, if you have no fucking idea what I'm talking about, that was set aside for the trash.

The painting was owned by an elderly French woman, who, I guess, it was above her oven is where she was keeping it, which, holy fuck, when you know more about what this piece is. She had set the painting aside for the trash, cuz she was just like, "I don't need this anymore. This is just, I guess, taking up space." I don't know what her thought process was.

But, she ended up calling an art expert to appraise her property before she actually threw it away, so she had it by the garbage, but then she's like, " let me take a gander." The expert decided that, upon looking at the painting, that it was actually valued up to 400,000 euros, but then they sent it to an art specialist in Paris who further appraised it, and then they were like, "Oh shit, this is a Cimabue painting," which is wild.

If you have ever taken an art history 101 course, you will have heard of Cimabue, maybe Giotto. They were both credited as kind of starting the Renaissance. So, they're like medieval artists, but they're like early Renaissance, also.

It's it's very nebulous, even though a lot of scholars want to be like, "No, this is it." But, Cimabue was medieval artist, but bridged the gap into Renaissance because the way he painted his figures. So, I'm I'm getting ahead of myself, so hold on. So he lived circa 1240 to 1302 in Florence, Italy, obviously, because then that's where the Renaissance just proliferated, which is super cool, the European Renaissance, I should say.

So, even though he was super heavily influenced by Byzantine artworks, Byzantine, I love Byzantine art, I'm not religious at all, like I've said repeatedly, but I love Byzantine art, I have no idea what it is, it speaks to me for some fucking reason, and it's so cool, but I love all the symbolism, I think. Byzantine artwork is very static, so it's it's very similar to medieval kind of style, but it does have more of like an ancient kind of feel to it, but it's very static, stoic, you don't have a lot of modeling of the figure, so you don't have a lot of roundedness, you don't have a lot of shading, so they're just very like, they look like paper, like very 2D, which is what you think of when you think of medieval art, and also proportions aren't proper, you have a lot of issues with perspective where things look huge, but they're very not, it's just, it doesn't look right, is basically what I'm trying to get at.

So, Cimabue is largely credited by scholars as being one of the first people to actually put things in proper proportion, use proper perspective. Granted, it's not 100% yet, but he's you can see the progression from Byzantine, medieval kind of art, to how we get to the Renaissance, so he also makes figures look way more lifelike, he uses a lot of shading, he adds some modeling to it, like you have more plump kind of figures, and then people look more in proportion, or people, it's like angels and shit like that, but like people, human figures, I will say, humanish figures, whatever.

He is also credited as being the teacher of Giotto, who was 100% credited as an early Renaissance artist, so Cimabue's kind of like that, like, which some people don't agree that he actually did teach Giotto, but, you know, whatever, it's like, most, it's up for debate, I will just say, I'm not going to get involved in that discussion because I don't care enough to.

And we really only know about him because of Giorgio Vasari's book, "Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects," because that's where, like, most Old Masters, quote-unquote, were documented, so it was like, it's like a little bio of each different artist, so that's why we know about a lot of these different artists, which is really cool.

I actually got to hold a copy of this original book, and it was one of the biggest thrills of my life, which, I guess, is a very boring life, but I was very excited to hold it, and it was just like, I got to hold it like my bare hands, too, and I was one of the it was so fucking cool, I loved it. So, obviously, Cimabue, for the time period he painted, I think, mostly, if not just all, figures and scenes from Christianity.

So, that brings me back to this painting then that we're talking about today that was almost thrown away. So, this one is called "Christ Mocked" and it was painted circa 1280, it measures 10 in, so, not too big. And it depicts the flagellation of Christ before his crucifixion.

The background has really pretty, pretty, Jesus, I was going to say beautiful and pretty, and I went, "bretty, it is a bretty." The background is this really pretty gold leaf, which if you know anything about Byzantine artwork or medieval, kind of, religious Christianity sort of artwork, gold leaf was huge. I always try to So, I taught art history for a little bit, so I can nerd out on this all day.

One of the things I absolutely love about this early Christian kind of artwork, is the use of specific things to make you feel something. So, if you think about how this painting would have been viewed in context with the gold leaf background, you would have the flickering of the candles bouncing off of the background, so it would look very heavenly, it would look otherworldly, which is what makes it so fun, and then that also, the dance of it.

I mean, we didn't have fucking contacts and eyeglasses, so some people couldn't even goddamn see. So, when Sorry, a lot of swearing for a religious painting. But, you would think about the figures themselves would also kind of look like they're moving a little bit and dancing, and, I don't know, I love putting myself in the context of how somebody would actually be viewing this artwork, and that, itself, is like so magical.

Like, Christianity did do, I'm being very specific with my words, did do artwork and architecture well. That's where I'm leaving this. So, anyway, I just like thinking about things in context, and if you think about the candlelight bouncing off the gold leaf and everything, it would be very pretty, so I digress.

So, "Christ Mocked", this is actually now believed to be one of eight missing panels from a complete multi work, would that be an octych? Because like a diptych is two, triptych is three, whatever. Big artwork composed of eight different panels, five of which are still missing, but, the two other panels are at the Frick in New York, and then the National Gallery in London, so maybe one day all eight of these could be united, but, I mean, the other five might just be lost to history.

So, back to the story of how this gets to the Louvre. So, the elderly woman, like I said, she got it appraised, blah, blah, blah. It then went to auction at the Louvre, sorry, it then went to auction and then the Louvre in Paris attempted to acquire the piece in 2019, because it's in France, and they were very interested in it.

They did end up losing the bidding battle when the piece went for a total of 24 million euro with fees. That actually also made it one of the most or, not one of, the most expensive medieval-era painting ever sold at auction, so that is crazy. It's also the eighth highest sale for a work by an Old Master.

Oh, and also, the elderly woman, she died 2 days after the auction, which was really sad, but she was in her 90s, so she like lived a very long, healthy life, so don't be too sad. So, anyway, the painting sold at auction to a person. The Louvre was still very keen on acquiring this piece.

So, France also is very keen on keeping their artworks and keeping their cultural heritage items, or what they view as cultural heritage items, in France. So, they actually, the, country's culture minister declared it a national treasure, and placed it under a temporary export ban. So, this painting could not leave the country.

So, if the person lived in wherever, fucking New York, or whatever, let's just say, the painting had to stay in France, so if the owner was in New York, they could not get their painting, so it had to stay there. I have no idea who the, person who is that purchased it, but it's also weird, because it's not a French painting.

It's Italian, when you look at Like, it Cimabue, it means bullhead, like, which is a whole other subject, that actually isn't the painter's real name, it's his nickname, which I find hilarious. Like, imagine if your nickname was like dickhead, and then you were just known as that forever, but I digress. So, the painting itself is Italian, which is also why the Mona Lisa is a huge fucking issue, and it was a huge issue way back when, but I digress, I'm not going to talk about that.

So because of this ban, the Louvre actually had 30 minutes, 30 minutes, Your time starts now. That would be amazing. I would actually love that.

Oh, my god, that'd be a great show. The Louvre had 30 months, to raise the funds needed to acquire the piece, which doesn't feel fair to me, but whatever. It hasn't actually, just to wrap the story up, it hasn't actually been publicly disclosed how much the Louvre actually had to raise, but, or how they obtain, obtained the funds, but they were actually able to come to some sort of sum, somehow, that the person who had purchased this painting originally agreed to, which it has to be a fuck ton of money, I have no idea how they were able to get it, but whatever.

The only thing we know is that the patrons who actually gave money, they received a considerable tax exemption for the piece. So, according to the Louvre, "Christ Mocked" is now going to be the centerpiece of an exhibition in 2025. So, if you'd like to go view it, you definitely can, I would totally love to go view it, so I don't know, maybe that'll be my first trip to Paris.

That would actually be really fun to see a Cimabue in person, but I digress. So, anyway, thank you so much for listening to this episode of Buy Amara, my like I said, I have a lot of travel coming up, so I'm going to try to be regular with recording, but just please bear with me, I'm doing my best. It's literally just me editing everything for everyone.

So, I have a lot of things I need to do. So, anyway, just please bear with me. I still love you, I hope you still love me, and I hope you have a great rest of your week.

I will hopefully be talking to you next week, or if not, the week after, I promise. I try to not go longer than 2 weeks, so just know that, or 1 week off, rather. So, anywho, if you like this episode, please be sure to like it.

If not, I'm so sorry, and I hope you have a great day, and please subscribe if you like it, and if not, that's fine, and let me know if you think my hair looks different. Just kidding, don't let me know, I don't want to hear fucking anything about that, so, anyway, have a great rest of your week, I love you, and I'm Amara Andrew, never stop creating.

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