A businessman is under investigation and faces possible charges after burning a sketch of artist Frida Kahlo to promote the sale of NFTs based on it. Martin Mobarak burned the 1994 drawing, valued at $10 million, at a party in Miami in a martini glass.
Called ‘Fantasmones Siniestros’, or ‘Sinister Ghosts’, the Kahlo sketch dated 1944 was a crayon, pencil and ink drawing depicting a surreal conglomeration of creatures. It was apparently destroyed at the launch party for Frida.NFT, which aims to sell 10,000 NFTs on the back of the stunt. The New York Times reports that the project has so far sold four NFTs.
A video from the event shows Mobarak, surrounded by ridiculous levels of security, removing the picture from its frame before placing it in a martini glass and putting it on. Almost unbelievably, a mariachi band starts playing the popular Mexican song ‘Cielito Lindo’. Some in the crowd cheer the action.
“I had to do something drastic to get attention,” Mobarak told The New York Times.
There is some skepticism as to whether even the web 3.0 crowd would actually pull such a crude stunt, and whether the drawing shown being burned was real.
Mobarak says he bought the drawing in 2015, and insists the work he burned was authentic. The NFT side includes a certificate of authenticity and provenance that this is the original. Of those who doubt that Mobarak really burned it, he says, “How do they know I didn’t?”
The Mexican National Institute of Arts and Letters is now investigating whether Mobarak burned an original Kahlo and thereby committed a federal crime. Kahlo’s work has been protected under Mexican law since 1984 as “artistic monuments”, and the penalty can be ten years in prison plus a fine corresponding to the value of the work.
The Frida Kahlo Museum in Coyoacan has also posted a statement condemning the act, pointing out that it owned the rights to all of Kahlo’s work, and had given no permission for an NFT to be made. It called the stunt “the destruction of the cultural heritage of our country” and said it had no ties to “the collector and his activities”.
Gregorio Luke, an expert on Mexican and Latin American art and culture, so: “I think this man should be put in prison”.
The Frida.NFT project tries to angle this act as one of global benevolence. “This profound act was done so that unfortunate and sick children, abused women and others less fortunate around the world would have hope.”
Mobarak’s plan was to sell 10,000 NFTs for 3 ETH each, around $3,600 at the current price, so it raised around $36 million in theory. “I’m a fan of Frida. She endured an enormous amount of physical, mental and spiritual pain.” Mobarak told the Miami Herald. “I’m using that one little painting to make something really good that she would be happy with.”
Of all the NFT trends, this idea of destroying real objects to give a digital token a mysterious legitimacy is among the worst. The artist Damien Hirst recently jumped on this idea, so pervasive has it become a 2021 project called Heni with 10,000 pieces of art where buyers had a year to choose whether to keep the original or have it destroyed and get an NFT from it. 4,581 buyers chose the NFT option. Number 17 in the collection is entitled “none of this matters”.
There was also a stunt in 2021 where the group ‘Burnt Banksy’ burned a Banksy painting. There was at least an element of wit in this example, with the Banksy piece titled Morons depicting an auction room of people buying art at Christies.
Where this will end up is anyone’s guess. Mobarak has either punked the art world, or has genuinely destroyed a work by one of the 20th century’s greatest artists in order to sell NFTs that apparently no one wants. Given the profile the stunt has achieved, it seems almost certain that if he had burned the real thing, Mexican authorities would be after him for it, while the Kahlo museum has a long history of seeking legal redress against the misuse of her work.
“People can see it as I destroyed it,” Mobarak said. “But I didn’t. This way I bring it to the world. I let everyone see it. I think it does more good for the world and makes a statement instead of just sitting in someone’s private collection.”
