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Rather than read the other day, I decided to watch an art-related film. The movie was called “Goya’s Ghosts” and starred Natalie Portman, Javier Bardem, and Stellan Skarsgård. It was a disturbing, but great film. They do an excellent job at depicting the atmosphere in Spain during this time and the ways that Goya’s work was affected by politics, religion, and social circumstances (which were all incredibly volatile and corrupt). I have only very briefly studied Goya in my college art history classes and don’t remember much about his art other than how terrible and disturbing some of the images were. After watching the movie, I now understand what inspired and influenced his work.
It’s a GREAT film and is available to “watch instantly” on Netflix.
My newest book that I recommend everyone read is called “Thieves of Baghdad” by Matthew Bogdanos and William Patrick. I had an opportunity to see Colonel Bogdanos speak the other day about his efforts to return looted artwork to the Iraq Museum. Not only was he a captivating speaker, but the story he had to tell was unreal. I had not ever heard of his book, but immediately went out to purchase it after the lecture was over. The book is available on Amazon for cheap. Not only does it have details of their quest to restore this museum (and the priceless antiques that were stolen from it) but it has a couple incredible photos to go along with it.
I’ve always known that art and antiques hold a lot of value, but not in the sense that Colonel Bogdanos explained. Did you know that the illegal trafficking of antiques is just as prominent at the trafficking of illegal drugs and weapons? In fact, antiques usually accompany the exchange of drugs and weapons. Interesting stuff.
Happy reading!
Yesterday evening I was browsing on Google Books in search of a new novel to begin. I was looking for something light but interesting, that wouldn’t take too much time to get through. What I came across was Fake: Fraud, Lies, and eBay by Kenneth Walton. I started reading some of the pages Google posts online and couldn’t seem to stop reading. It was only around the time that I got to “page 7-8 have been removed from the internet for copyright purposes” (or something along those lines) that I realized that I NEEDED to go out and get a copy of this book. Until I was able to go obtain a copy I spent a little bit of time researching the store (which is a true story). It’s about a man who got addicted to selling fine art on eBay during the big dot com boom in the mid-90’s. Literally, it got to a point where he quit his career as a lawyer (to pursue his eBay career full heartedly), started copying artists signatures onto works that could be by them, and knowingly deceived people into buying works that were not what he portrayed them to be for thousands and thousands of dollars. It wasn’t until a work went for over $100,000 that the newspapers (and later the FBI) got involved. AND this story is 100% true!
So, first thing this morning I hunted down a copy of the book and can’t seem to put it down. In fact, I’m back to reading. Another post will come later when I finish reading.
