Plummeting NFT Market // Destruction of $10 MILLION Friday Kahlo artwork // Betty White Auction // 7,000-year-old Mystery Structure

Hello everyone. Welcome back to By Amara. This is a weekly news show where I discuss contemporary events in the art and history world.

I'm your host and personal curator, Amara Andrew.

For the show, typically we follow the format traditionally used by Western brides: something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue. This week however, we're going to be doing things a little bit differently. I actually have two something olds and two something news that I want to discuss this week.

It's just how it worked, so we're just going to roll with it. I'm already changing things up for week four, so!

So, this week we're going to be discussing the massive plummet in the NFT market and what that means for the future of NFTs and crypto; a $10 million Frida Kahlo piece that was destroyed for absolutely no good reason, but we'll talk about that in a minute; Betty White's auction, so an auction of Betty White's personal things; and a 7,000-year-old mystery structure.

All that coming up on this episode of By Amara. Let's get to it.

All righty. So before we get started with the show, I just wanted to start maybe a new segment called just "What's Up With Me", I guess, very original, like unique titling, I know. But in this segment, I just wanted to talk about some of the different things that I'm working on, I don't know, just to share it with someone.

That sounds very sad, but just I don't know, just to talk about it and see what's up. So as you can tell, it is now October. Jeff always makes me wait, Jeff my boyfriend, he always makes me wait till October 1st.

This year he was much more lenient because I kept throwing him under the bus about it, but

Typically he makes me wait until October 1st to decorate just because he loves the summer, which I do too. But I also very much love fall, I love Halloween. It is my absolute favorite holiday, I could honestly do without any other holidays, just personally.

I love Halloween, I always have. It's funny because my dad keeps sending photos of me as a kid with pumpkins and costumes and things like that just because, I don't know, I have a lot of photos like that. In a few of them I'm kissing the pumpkins, so just I don't know, that tells you all you need to know about me, I guess, and my love for Halloween.

So because Halloween is my favorite time of year, and if you hate NFTs, again just don't listen to this part. We're going to be talking about NFTs a little bit today though, so just get ready for that. I actually just launched two days ago an NFT project, or two days ago, two days ago from when I'm recording this, so about a week ago by now.

I launched a Halloween NFT project called the Spoopies. You can find it at spoopies.com. It's a generative Halloween NFT project, like I said.

There are 999 different pieces. It's based off of, I'm an art historian by trade,

So it's based off of the animation stylings of the 1920s and '30s. I just really love rubber hose animation. I always am watching those types of cartoons just because it's just fun, and I just really love them.

I just love how like animated they are. The Spoopies, it's a collection of six different characters and they have various different arms and legs and heads and things like that, so you can check it out at spoopies.com where you can mint them, or go to opensea.io/collection/spoopies. I have the URL down here, too, and it'll be linked in the description, so you can go straight to it.

So I've been working on that for a little bit. I've just am very excited. It's been amazing so far.

It's halfway minted out already, which is wild. I didn't expect anybody to really be interested in my collection, but the NFT community is seriously just so awesome. We're all so supportive of one another and just I love all you, so thank you so much, like to everybody who supported so far.

So that's all I got, I think, for new for me, but yeah, excited about the decorations, excited about the Spoopies, and just working on normal video editing stuff.

It's really fun getting to see my clients and just kind of catch up and just see how their lives are going because there's always just so much change. And I have a new client this week, so I'm very excited. So we'll see how that goes.

So anyway, that's just what's going on in Amara's world. Maybe I'll call it that, actually. I don't know.

If you have any opinions on what I should call this segment, let me know, or if I should just do away with it, then just skip ahead if you don't like it. Okay, so without further ado, let's get to the show.

So our first something new, like I said, there are going to be two something news and two something olds. So our first something new also has to do with NFTs. Two of our stories do the back-to-back, so if you don't give a shit, then just scroll ahead.

Sorry, but this is my show and I want to talk about it. So, first we're going to be talking about the NFT market. I was blown away by this.

So, I've been in NFTs for a while now, mostly because of Jeff, obviously. He's been into them since I think 2019-ish or so, or maybe before that.

NFTs skyrocketed during COVID and for the year afterward in like 2021. But now, apparently, the volume is down 97% since January of this year, 2022. That's a lot.

So in January 2022, over $17 billion was traded on the NFT market. 17 billion, that is a lot. Like I think that was actually one of the all-time highs for the market.

However, throughout 2022, that number has been decreasing very steadily. I think it was about $400 million that was traded, or a little bit over 400 million in September. Still a lot of money, but that is a massive difference.

And like I said, if you've been in the NFT space at least since like 2020 or something, like you'll you definitely have seen this like wave in trending and everything. And NFTs are still doing pretty well, like I said, but it definitely isn't just the NFT market that's suffering. If you pay attention to economics or the markets at all, all of the markets,

Except for Boston Market, don't pay attention to that one. But if you pay attention to all the markets, you'll see that everything kind of follows the same pathway, and everything is trending downward. So be prepared, I've seen a lot of financial YouTubers talking about this.

I don't know why I'm giving I'm not giving you financial advice right now, but just be prepared. A lot of talk about another recession, possibly almost like another Great Depression sort of style of life. Anyway, I'm not giving you financial advice.

I am literally the last person that you should ever listen to for financial things. But I just wanted to talk about the NFT market.

So one of the interesting things about this though is that for Ethereum, which is one of the cryptocurrencies, it was believed that once they did the merge, which was essentially ETH 2.0, that was supposed to make all transactions a lot more eco-friendly, the thought was that with the merge, ETH would skyrocket and essentially become about the same value as Bitcoin or even surpass it.

That did not happen. It just stayed very much the same or maybe even a little lower or a little bit higher, but it didn't change as much as people thought. A lot of memes online about the merge and everything.

So unfortunately, that did not happen.

I do wonder if part of the reason why NFTs have kind of slumped is because of all the new tax regulations and things like that, and then the government's getting involved, and that just always makes everything way more complicated than it really should be. So it could be partially that. It could also be that a bunch of people, I will not name any particular projects or people, but you know who you are, or you know who these people are if you are watching this, that just saw like a quick cash grab, like pump and dump everything, like put out a bunch of projects and promise, "Oh, we're going to do this, this, this, this," and then they rug the entire community, which basically just means that they did not deliver on their promises and then got millions and millions of dollars and then essentially were just like, "Bye!"

Which is really shitty to do, and screw you if you've done that. You are a shit bag. There can be a lot of shit bags in this episode, so get ready.

I'm on fire today. But anyway, so that could also be part of the reason if people just got burnt out on NFTs and it's like everything is just going to be like a shitty, quick cash grab, and people actually don't care about their communities. So that isn't all NFTs, I do want to say first and foremost.

That is not every single community. You just have to be very, very careful, do your due diligence, hang out on the Discords, talk to people on Twitter and things like that, and you can find your community.

I'm part of many of them, so if you need any recommendations, hit me up. Okay, so like I said, we are doing two something news. This one I am very irritated with.

I was debating about whether or not I should even discuss this, because I do not want to give a platform to the piece of shit that did this, or pieces of shits,

Many pieces of shits are involved in this. I was definitely trying to figure out if I actually wanted to talk about this, but I do because it definitely fires me up, and it's extremely irritating and just irresponsible and stupid on many levels. Without further ado, let's talk about the Frida Kahlo $10 million art piece.

So, like I said, not identifying the project or the person, if you do a quick Google search you can find out who this person is. I do not even want to address who it is, but I want to talk about this thing that has happened. Someone is making an NFT art collection and it was done under the guise of setting a $10 million piece of Frida Kahlo artwork

On fire, and, quote, "was permanently transitioned into the metaverse on July 30th, 2022." So that means that the piece was burnt, does not exist anymore, and the NFTs that are being sold, which I'll talk about what the price is in more about that in a second, but the NFTs that are being sold are the only link back to this piece of art.

Now, I enjoy art that is disruptive of the traditional art community. I'm very much about it. Like I like how Damien Hirst did his project where it was like, you either choose between the NFT or the painting, and then if you choose the NFT, then the painting is destroyed forever.

That's a very neat, fun premise, and it's also his own artwork that he gets to choose what he does with it. Very, very different than what happened here. I'm trying to keep my language very civil for this podcast, but I just am very irritated with this person.

Where do I even begin? Okay. So the piece that was allegedly burned, and I'm saying allegedly just because there is an investigation going on right now to see if this actually was this Frida Kahlo drawing, so the piece that was allegedly burned was "Fantasmones Siniestros," and it was from her diary, I believe.

It was just like a piece of paper, I say just, it was very beautiful. Hopefully still is, but we'll see. So, on the site for the NFT project, they do have a certificate of authenticity that proves the provenance of this piece and says that this actually is this drawing.

Now, that could definitely be a fake document. Like this whole thing could just be

A very big ploy to get eyes on the NFT project, which I really, really hope it is. I hope it's just a really shitty, stupid marketing ploy, but we will find out I guess in months to come. So, you could argue, who gives a shit, Amara?

Like who cares if this Frida Kahlo drawing was destroyed? Well, a lot of people do, not just me, many, many people do for many different reasons. I am of the belief that, you know, art is an extension of someone's culture.

So if you are destroying that artwork, which has been done by terrorists, and I'm classifying this guy as a terrorist in my opinion, if you do that, you are destroying somebody's identity and their culture, which is a really shitty thing to do, especially because a lot of people look up to Frida Kahlo, not only women, but people of color, and women of color look up to Frida Kahlo as a great example of artistry and of making beauty in the world, even though you're going through intense suffering and things like that.

Like she is a very amazing person in the art world. Like she has a lot of hope for people. I mean, I teach art history, and I mean, at least three or four people each semester write papers on her artwork because it touches them in some way.

Like it just does.

So to destroy that for people for your really stupid shit NFT project just doesn't make any sense. And it gets even weirder. So on the website, I'm not naming it, there is a statement that says that this was a, quote, "profound act that was done for unfortunate children, battered women, and other less fortunate around the world to receive hope," end quote.

So that means that he is going to be donating a portion of the proceeds from the NFT project to help with what was it? Health and arts organizations. How the fuck does that make sense?

And I'm going to get real heated, but I'm trying to keep it together. This is just like the Caillebotte diamond again where I'm just like,! How does that make sense?

You spent $10 million on this piece of artwork. Okay, so I have many thoughts. Some of it is coming together for me, but I do have more thoughts.

So why wouldn't you just donate that $10 million that you spent on the Frida Kahlo piece first to these organizations? I get that this could be a way to bring publicity to these different organizations and have other people, other millionaires like yourself, donate money to them. But I think there's a better way that you could do it without destroying public pieces of culture and artwork and just do it in a better way.

Also, just donate your money, like without having to be the center of attention. You can just give your money to people, do it silently like many other people do, many other normal, sane people do, and go about your little day. So the NFTs cost 3 ETH each, which I think ETH is about $1300 right now, so quickly that is about $3,900 per NFT.

That is a lot of money, but it's not a ton when you think about the exorbitant prices other people pay for other NFT collections. I would like to point out happily that only 27 of them have sold, which it still just doesn't make sense to me why you would do this if you didn't sell out your 10,000 NFT project. Also, the NFTs are so hideous, they don't even make sense, because you don't really actually get to see the artwork either.

It's just like a flash of different like lights and things like that. Like you just you can't really see the original artwork, so it's not like it's a very high quality copy of the piece. It just is very stupid.

It's also been claimed on their website that they will help fund artistic institutions that they've personally worked with before. Many of these institutions have actually issued statements saying that they've never worked with or heard of this person before in their lives, which that's really weird. So in their statement denying any involvement with this individual, they also stated, quote, "In Mexico, the deliberate destruction of an artistic monument constitutes a crime in terms of the federal law on archaeological, artistic, and historical monuments and zones." So this jerkoff is now being investigated by Mexican officials.

I don't know how this is going to go exactly because he actually incinerated this priceless piece of artwork in Miami. So I have no idea how international law is going to work for this. Thank God I'm not a lawyer because that would be a shit show.

Anyway, we will have to see where this goes. I will keep you updated. So TL;DR, I hope this guy is in jail for a very, very, very long time.

Unfortunately, I feel like this will not happen. Just knowing how the legal system works, it doesn't really work, unfortunately. So we will just have to see where this goes.

Need a drink after that, and I don't even drink anymore.

Do you ever get so angry that your cheeks just feel really hot and angry, and angry? Just very hot and red, and I feel like I'm it's like a million degrees in here right now. Trying to keep my cool and keep my composure, but my boyfriend Jeff got an earful about this guy before, so trying to not be as irritated about that as I was earlier.

Anywho, hopefully justice or whatever will prevail, but I doubt it.

Anyway, let me move on to our something old this week. So there was an auction September 23rd through the 25th in Beverly Hills at Julien's Auctions of Betty White's stuff. Over 1600 pieces from her life went up for auction.

They have like a whole list of everything that was sold, essentially like an inventory with all the prices listed, so you can go peruse that if you'd like. I'll link that in the description as well. They included a variety of items throughout her very long life, including things from her childhood, various paintings, I don't think they were by her, I think it was by a variety of different artists, and much of her stuff from her career in TV and film.

The most expensive item that was sold at the auction was a director's chair from The Golden Girls that sold for $76,800. A director's chair sold for that much money, that is wild. Like I guess I don't understand Well, so most of the items sold from what I could see in the inventory for about like 1 to $3,000 in that kind of range.

So that was like the majority of it. Some things definitely were like 76,000, 20, whatever. What I don't understand is when people buy things that somebody famous used to own.

I just I don't understand I guess the thought process for that. Like it's just interesting to me, because like you're buying this dead woman's

Stuff that she used to own. Do you even like it? Like do you actually enjoy it and like it?

I don't know. I know I'm passing judgment, but I personally think it's a really creepy kind of hobby because you're that obsessed with somebody, it's like stalker-ish. Even if you're a huge TV and film buff, I don't think I would ever want to own Cary Grant's chair or something.

Like it just doesn't have that much significance for me, and I am a huge, huge Cary Grant fan, or even Peter Lorre. If I could get something of Peter Lorre's, I don't think I would. I would think it was a little creepy for me to own it, but that's just my personal opinion, so I might even just cut this out of the podcast.

We'll see if I keep it. That was the Betty White auction, that was our something old. Something old because Betty White was very old, so rest in peace, Betty White, we miss you.

So our second part of our something old is going to be a 7,000-year-old structure. In early September, archaeologists in Vinoř, and I'm so sorry, I'm going to be mispronouncing all of this because these are Czech words that I do not know, so just FYI, I apologize in advance. So archaeologists in Vinoř, just outside of Prague in the Czech Republic, discovered something super, super major.

So like I said, 7,000-year-old circular structure known as a rondel. It measures approximately 180 feet in diameter. A rondel is just like a big, flat, round, like kind of like a just a space like that has been marked by like stones or something else.

So it's just literally just a big, open space.

Archaeologists have dated this large area to date between 4900 BCE to about 4500 or 4600 BCE, I'm sorry. 4900 BCE to 4600 BCE. For context, that is almost two times older than the Great Pyramids of Giza, and about 2,000 years older than Stonehenge.

So this is really fucking old. Apparently though, there are many other rondels like this in Europe. There are 35 of them alone just in the Czech Republic.

So archaeologists are trying to figure out what the significance is of these because that is a very unique and kind of an unusual thing to have.

There are a lot of different theories. One is that it was a commercial center for trading and things like that. Another suggests that it could just be a site of religious worship or ritual or something.

So we'll see what the professionals can figure out and what this even means.

Okay, so that'll do it for this episode. Apologies that I got very heated on our Frida Kahlo NFT thing. I just think that's so ridiculous and disrespectful, but those are my own two cents.

Those are my own two cents, whatever. You know what I mean. So, if you liked this video, please make sure to like it, subscribe for more episodes.

I will try to keep it together in my future episodes. Go back and watch all the other ones, just for some contemporary art news and things like that. And just thanks so much for listening.

Again, I'm Amara Andrew, and never stop creating.