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?

EPISODE REFERENCES

Isabella Stewart Gardner Bio, gardnermuseum.org

Learn about the 13 stolen paintings, gardnermuseum.org

This Is a Robbery: The World's Biggest Art Heist, Netflix

Last Seen Podcast, WBUR.org

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Twitter: @artcrimepod

Show Notes and Blog: ARTCRIME .blog

Mara on Instagram: @mjvpaints

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>

Episode References

ART

The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring, by Vincent van Gogh

The Potato Eaters, by Vincent van Gogh

Weaver, Interior with Three Small Windows, by Vincent van Gogh

Sunflowers (1887), by Vincent van Gogh

NEWS

Man admits stealing Andy Warhol paintings and attempting to sell fake versions on eBay | The Independent

All 18 works at show of Spanish artist Maruja Mallo were fakes, say experts | The Guardian

Magic: The Gathering Artist Issues Apology After Art Theft Claims | Bleeding Cool News

Young couple mistakenly vandalizes $440,000 painting in South Korea | Yahoo!

What Do You Do With a Stolen van Gogh? This Thief Knows | New York Times

OTHER

Peasant Painter (Biographical Info) | Van Gogh Museum

Unsolved Art Heists: The Missing Paintings of Vincent van Gogh | artnet

To Theo van Gogh. Nuenen, on or about Thursday, 20 March 1884. | Vincent van Gogh Letters

The Doctor and Amy travel back in time to meet Vincent Van Gogh and face an invisible monster that only the painter can see. | YouTube

Security video from the Netherlands’ Singer Laren Museum shows the thief smashing his way through glass doors before leaving with the 1884 artwork tucked under his arm | NBC News

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Instagram: @artcrimepod

Twitter: @artcrimepod

Show Notes and Blog: ARTCRIME .blog

Mara on Instagram: @mjvpaints

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!

Episode References

ART

'Summer's Day' (1879), by Berthe Morisot

Berthe Morisot Exhibit (Feb 2019 to May 2019)at Dallas Museum of Art

Hanging the Laundry out to Dry, 1875, by Berthe Morisot

Self-Portrait, 1885, by Berthe Morisot

Reading, 1873, by Berthe Morisot

The Boating Party, 1893-1894, by Mary Cassatt

NEWS

Ghent Altarpiece: 'most stolen' artwork has new €30m home in bulletproof glass | The Guardian

Revealed: police barred from searching Queen’s estates for looted artefacts | The Guardian

University of Aberdeen to repatriate looted Nigerian bronze sculpture | BBC

OTHER

'Summer's Day' (1879 by Morisot) Analysis| artnet

Berthe Morisot: Impressionist Original |speech by Olga Haridge

Art This Week-At the Dallas Museum of Art-Berthe Morisot | Art This Week

Erin L. Thompson, art crime professor

Closer to Van Eyck: The Ghent Altarpiece Restored

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Instagram: @artcrimepod

Twitter: @artcrimepod

Show Notes and Blog: ARTCRIME .blog

Mara on Instagram: @mjvpaints

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

Episode References

ART

Tube Shelter Perspective, by Henry Moore

Shelter Scene: Bunks and Sleepers, by Henry Moore

Shelterers in the Tube, by Henry Moore

Reclining Figure, by Henry Moore

Rock Drill, by Jacob Epstein

Star Wars Prequel Concept Art Designs, by Doug Chiang

NEWS

PEOPLE ARE STEALING ART AND TURNING IT INTO NFTS | VICE

MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS HOUSTON BREAK-IN: 2 SUSPECTS ESCAPE BY BOAT ON BUFFALO BAYOU | KHOU.COM

WE DON’T KNOW HOW MUCH ART HAS GONE MISSING FROM MUSEUMS | THE NEW YORK TIMES

FRANCE TO RETURN NAZI-LOOTED KLIMT TO RIGHTFUL JEWISH HEIRS | THE JEWISH VOICE

THE NATIONAL LIBRARY HID FOR FOUR YEARS THE THEFT OF AN ORIGINAL WORK BY GALILEO | EL PAIS

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Instagram: @artcrimepod

Twitter: @artcrimepod

Show Notes and Blog: ARTCRIME .blog

Mara on Instagram: @mjvpaints

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.

Episode References

ART

Red Canna 1919, by Georgia O'Keeffe

No. 21 (Palo Duro Canyon), by Georgia O'Keeffe

Red and Orange Streak, by Georgia O'Keeffe

New York Skyscrapers, by Georgia O'Keeffe

Famous Paintings, by Jacobus Hendrik Pierneef

Ipswich Prints: Lily, 1901, Arthur Wesley Dow

NEWS

George Clooney Calls for the Return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece | The Greek Reporter

Ace Magashule’s former bodyguard gets 15 years in jail for stealing Pierneef painting | Independent Online

Paris Louvre recovers 16th-century armour stolen nearly 40 years ago | The Guardian

OTHER

Georgia O'Keeffe: Visions of Hawaii, by Georgia O'Keeffe

Tate Modernist: How Georgia O’Keeffe shaped feminist style | The Guardian

Sotheby’s $44.4M Georgia O’Keeffe Shatters Auction Record for Work by a Female Artist | The Observer

In Hawaii, Georgia O’Keeffe Found a Curious New Way to Look at Nature. An Immersive Show Lets You Mirror Her Journey | Artnet

Georgia O’Keeffe: Abstraction at Whitney Museum of American Art

Composition by Arthur W. Dow - Free Ebook

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Find Us

Instagram: @artcrimepod

Twitter: @artcrimepod

Show Notes and Blog: ARTCRIME .blog

Mara on Instagram: @mjvpaints