Did this man destroy a Frida Kahlo drawing to make a NFT? | Smart news

Back in July, at an extravagant mansion party in Miami, Martin Mobarak wore a sequined blazer with Frida Kahlo’s face on it. “What we’re going to do here today,” he informed his guests, “is going to change the lives of thousands of children, and I hope everyone here can understand that.”

Mobarak, a wealthy Mexican businessman living in Miami, held up what he claimed was a drawing from one of Kahlo’s diaries. He proceeded to remove it from its frame, place it in a martini glass filled with bright blue red spirit, and set it on fire.

As the drawing burned, an image of it appeared from digital flames on a screen behind Mobarak. His company, Frida.NFT, was now set to sell 10,000 non-fungible tokens (NFTs) of the image. The drawing, according to the company’s website, “was permanently transferred to Metaverse.” A portion of the proceeds, his organization claimed, would support “unfortunate children, abused women and others less fortunate around the world.”

Four months later, it looks like Mobarak’s stunt will cost him a lot more than it will bring him.

The burning of the drawing – which Mobarak claims was the original Fantasmones Siniestros, a 9-by-6-inch ink and watercolor work that Kahlo drew in her diary in 1944—mostly flew under the radar until September, when it reached Mexico’s National Institute of Arts and Letters. On September 26, the institute announced that it was investigating whether the drawing Mobarak brant was authentic or not.

If the drawing was indeed a real Kahlo, Mobarak has committed a federal crime in the eyes of the Mexican government, which protects all of Kahlo’s work. “In Mexico, the deliberate destruction of an artistic monument constitutes a crime in relation to the Federal Law on Archaeological, Artistic and Historical Monuments and Zones,” the institute said in a statement, per Google Translate.

On the other hand, if the drawing was an imitation, Mobarak could end up in trouble for fraud, lawyer Leila Amineddoleh told New York Times‘ Zachary Small.

“If he actually burned it, he’s breaking one law,” says Amineddoleh, who specializes in art and heritage law. “And if he didn’t, if it was a reproduction, then he may have violated copyright law. And if he copied the original with the intent to deceive, that could be fraud.”

The Museo Frida Kahlo also released a statement condemning Mobarak’s actions and addressing potential legal concerns.

Mobarak tells Times that he thinks Kahlo herself would approve of his stunt. “If Frida Kahlo was alive today,” he says, “I would bet my life that if I asked to burn a small piece of her diary to bring smiles and a better quality of life to the children, she would say: ‘Go ahead! and do it. I’ll light the fire.'”

Mary-Anne Martin, a well-known dealer in Latin American art, has sold Fantasmones Siniestros twice, once in 2004 to a foundation and then in 2013 to a private collector. Talking with ViceEmily Green, Martin says she did not sell the drawing to Mobarak and had not heard of him until September. “The whole thing is scary,” she says.

Mobarak, for his part, maintains that the drawing was authentic. He tells Times that he bought it from a private collector in 2015, but did not share how much he paid for it. He claims the drawing was valued at $10 million.

According to Etherscan, which analyzes Ethereum blockchain transactions, only four of the 10,000 available NFTs of the Kahlo drawing have been sold as of Tuesday, as of Tuesday. Timestotal less than $11,200.

When Times asked Mobarak if he wished he hadn’t burned the drawing, he “took a long pause and sighed.” He then replied, “I like to say I don’t regret it.”

Burning physical art is not unprecedented in the NFT market, which is currently “down by almost every traceable metric”, as QuartzScott Nover says so. Last year, a collective called BurntBanksy lit an original artwork by the famous street artist on fire, then sold an NFT of the work. Earlier this year, British artist Damien Hirst sold thousands of his own paintings and gave buyers the option to keep either an NFT or physical copy of each piece. For those who chose the NFT version, the corresponding physical work was destroyed.