Art Crime Podcast

We finally cover the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft. You're welcome! For our Season One finale, we give the biggest art theft in history the full Mara and Baker treatment. This episode has it all: piggy backs, Tape Head, Mafia guys, the IRA, wheat toast, Flim-Flam Man, a Julia Child sighting, and some quality time hearing Mara and Baker discuss our time living in Boston. We tell you everything we know about the March 18th, 1990 Boston crime that resulted in the loss of 13 works of art, including a Vermeer and two Rembrandts. Our discussion follows the four-part Netflix documentary on the heist, 'This is a Robbery' by the Barnicle Brothers. As we cover the chronology of each Netflix episode, we weave in additional information from WBUR's Last Seen podcast and other news sources. This is the Gardner heist episode you've been waiting for?

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You think you know Vincent van Gogh, bro? We go deep into the Vincent van Gogh stacks; his letters, his Neunen studio diagrams, alternate and credible versions of how he lost part of an ear, his less discussed "Peasant Painter" period when he moved back in with his parents and his studio was adjacent to a cesspit. Mara reveals van Gogh's buddy Paul Gauguin as the total creep he was -- a helluva painter, but a terrible creep of a man. The painting at the center of our heist, 'The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring' triggers some flashbacks of scary paintings in Mara and Baker's family homes. Our news is full of bad fakes of renowned artists, plus the story of a young couple who mistook an installation as an invitation to "interact" and leave some marks of their own. Awkward! Next, it's onto the 2020 theft of Van Gogh's 'The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring', a smash and grab job by some casually dressed guy with a sledgehammer. We tell you everything we know, including the most recent update direct from Arthur Brand himself, aka: the Indiana Jones of the art world!/p>

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Mara is distracted by Baker and his "butt ball" which is actually just Baker trying to balance on a yoga ball after way too much coffee. BERTHE MORISOT! Learn her name and please use it in equal measure in future references to French impressionists. As you might imagine, she endured all kinds of patriarchal BS. Despite that, she crushed it! She was critically acclaimed and admired by her peers. Mara tells us more about the paint and techniques used in the [to be stolen] Morisot painting, 'Summer's Day' and she pronounces A LOT of French names in this episode too. Baker is baffled by the concept of 'Queen’s consent' which is a super dumb parliamentary thing. And finally, the theft! It's a heist that makes a statement and forces compromise. It also serves as a warning to get your damn affairs in order before you die!

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Baker is a little disappointed about gatekeeping and elitism in the art community and wishes everyone would stop freaking out about NFTs -- and as usual, Mara is the voice of reason who talks him off the ledge. In short, art is for everyone, damnit! We discuss the life of renowned sculptor, Henry Moore, and we pry into his World War I experience and wonder how it may have really influenced his work, and then Baker gets really excited about tank warfare, though to be clear he does not condone war! We share the story of a sleep-deprived roadtrip wherein Mara and Baker hallucinated deer and big horn sheep and then we dive into the latest news which makes us ask the question; do museums even know what they've really lost to art crime? We pause for a Star Wars reference, then it's onto the crime! We're impressed by the speed and precision required to steal and dismantle a two ton sculpture in the middle of the night, and then we wrap things up with Baker's thirst for validation and 5 star reviews on Apple Podcasts

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It's the Art Crime Podcast 10th Episode Spectacular! Starring Georgia O'Keeffe, George Clooney, Boris Johnson, Pierneef, Arthur Wesley Dow, featuring Alfred Stieglitz, and as always your hosts, Mara and Baker! We celebrate Georgia O'Keeffe's amazing life and career, we roll our eyes at Alfred Stieglitz, and everyone is pretty tired of people referencing vagina in her flower paintings. In the news, we side with George Clooney and agree it's probably a good time for the Elgin marbles to be returned to Athens, and then we discover and fall in love with the paintings of South African artist Pierneef after reading about secretary-general Ace Magashule’s former bodyguard's theft of a Pierneef painting. And finally, the case of the Georgia O'Keefe painting thefts in 2004 and the sad ending for a former museum employee and desperate opportunist. This didn't turn out great for anyone.

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Without Nice, there is no Matisse. We marvel at the roller coaster life and art of Henri Matisse and especially the massive amount of bullsh*t his wife Amelie had to put up with! To his credit and to the dismay of many, Matisse was an artist who refused to compromise and gave all of himself to his art, once telling an interviewer, "I do not literally paint that table, but the emotion it produces upon me." Our thief this episode has a real case of the "sneaky sneakies" according to Mara and we see a similar passion between the thief and our artist, Matisse. In art crime news, a God is returned to Nepal, charges are dropped over a Klimt painting theft, and Walmart steals a portrait from @artbyrizzo and sells it on printed canvasses, how dare!

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Baker confuses didgeridoo noises for throat singing and Mara suggests he starts a YouTube channel for old ladies who knit. We go deep into the intense drama of Vermeer's personal life and wonder how many priceless loaves of bread you could buy today in exchange for a Vermeer. Our news items are happy and sad this week; we discuss the recovery of an art theft we discussed way back in Episode 2, and then we say goodbye to the legendary art detective Charles Hill who died on February 20, 2021. RIP, Mr. Hill! Baker imagines a love triangle and betrayal lurking in the Vermeer painting, Lady Writing a Letter with Her Maid, but Mara sees something hilariously meta in it all. It's the painting so nice, thieves stole it twice! First, by intellectual recalcitrant turned freedom fighter, Rose Dugdale and her Irish Republican Army compatriots. Next, it’s an infamous Irish career criminal nicknamed "The General", Martin Cahill. Finally after two hits, the estate has the good sense to leave the painting's security to the National Gallery of Ireland, where it hangs today.

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Lucky Episode 7! Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (aka: Goya) is our focus this episode and boy do we have a lot to say about him. Mara and Baker are big fans! In our sharing is caring segment, we cover the recent “I just wanted to move the Warhol print for a laugh, I wasn’t going to steal it!” guy in Rochester, NY. Plus that dude who found Viking treasure last week, and then Baker explains why Beeple (Mike Winkelmann) is a low key genius who is mainstreaming NFT art sales with Christie’s. We briefly attempt to explain NFTs and what this Beeple auction at Christie’s might mean for the future of art. All of that and lots more Goya talk, including why his Los Caprichos series reminds Baker of an 80’s thrash metal band.

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This one is a doozy! Mara and Baker discuss their long affairs with the art of Edvard Munch. We play armchair psychologists on Munch and ourselves. Baker gives us a preview of the Munch musical he’s been writing since college. Warning: Baker sings a lot in this one. Then he has the audacity to try and make “hot goss” a thing, which will not happen, but he’d love to have a jingle for it. Munch was way too involved in his friends’ love triangle (gross) and that brings us to news! Kevin Hart gets robbed by an assistant, a fake German heiress gets out of jail, and finally; Steve Martin doing more great things. Baker sniffs his bowl of tea leaves while Mara investigates the 1994 and 2004 thefts of Edvard Munch’s The Scream, one of the most famous and iconic images in history. In the end, we find it hard to dislike one of the thieves who just seems like a hopeless romantic. Stay to the end to hear our impromptu Norwegian dance song.

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We reminisce about our trip to Puerto Rico, the street art of Vieques, and Mara falling into a pothole (with hilarious results, says Baker). We obsess over the evolution of Rembrandt’s nose through 30 years off self-portraits, we spend a little time discussing what was so “golden” about the Dutch Golden Age. We celebrate the [criminally overlooked] genius of some Dutch female painters of the era with a special shout out to Clara Peeters! Our news this week is all about the sometimes complicated topic of restitution, and then Mara jumps into yet another case where poor skylight security leads to a multi-million dollar art heist. Won’t someone please think of the skylights?!!

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