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, in...
Apr 19, 2021•1 hr 37 min•Season 1Ep. 14
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...
Apr 04, 2021•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 13
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...
Mar 29, 2021•38 min•Season 1Ep. 12
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...
Mar 21, 2021•50 min•Season 1Ep. 11
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 returne...
Mar 15, 2021•47 min•Season 1Ep. 10
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 se...
Mar 07, 2021•46 min•Season 1Ep. 9
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,...
Mar 01, 2021•54 min•Season 1Ep. 8
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 ...
Feb 22, 2021•42 min•Season 1Ep. 7
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 r...
Feb 15, 2021•57 min•Season 1Ep. 6
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 ...
Feb 08, 2021•51 min•Season 1Ep. 5
We pat ourselves on the backs for getting to Episode 4 before jumping into the wild life of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. Baker attempts the podcast's first Art History crash course (with mixed results) and can't help himself from nerding out on comic book artist references related to the subjects of the episode. Mara explains the importance of iconography and tries to dissuade Baker from creating fake art news. You'll be shocked to learn that the mafia might be involved with the Caravaggio...
Feb 01, 2021•40 min•Season 1Ep. 4
We start with some vocal exercises and Mara explains why Maxfield Parrish was one of the most successful illustrators in history. Even if you *think* you don’t know Maxfield Parrish, you almost definitely know his work. We become big fans of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney and Mara plans her own palatial artist studio. Baker discusses the news about a recovered Leonardo-school ‘Salvator Mundi’ painting of Christ and tries to avoid conspiracy theories about its “conveniently timed” return. We inevita...
Jan 25, 2021•32 min•Season 1Ep. 3
Baker applauds Mara's recent improvisational marionette dance, we discuss a recent art heist in New Zealand and the conclusion of the "Gurlitt Trove" investigation. We accidentally get into a really interesting discussion about stereoscopes and trains and how they both changed the course of Impressionism. And then Mara dives into one of the coolest art heists in history when someone steals Cezanne's painting, View of Auvers-sur-Oise. We don't condone the theft, but we celebrate the speed, athlet...
Jan 18, 2021•40 min•Season 1Ep. 2
Baker requests more details about Mara's 6th grade fiction about Mr. Schneider the jewel thief, then "sharing is caring" about art we'd like steal and a new TV show we like to watch. We try to figure out how the Mona Lisa got so popular in the first place, Baker compares the Mona Lisa to The Beatles, then Mara deep dives into the strange and true history of Mona Lisa's disappearance, with cameos by Pablo Picasso and Franz Kafka. Episode References ART Nicolás Romero, Los ultimos dias de primaver...
Jan 11, 2021•47 min•Season 1Ep. 1
