Did he or did he not? That's the 10 million dollar question Mexican cultural authorities are now investigating, following the release of a youtube video by Mexican-American tech entrepreneur and art collector Martin Mobarak that shows him allegedly burning an authentic Frida Kahlo work this late July.
The weird stunt may be a scam – but if real, Mobarak will be charged with federal crimes, as Kahlo's works are considered national cultural assets in Mexico, and their intentional destruction will result in criminal prosecution.
See also: Frida Kahlo: Colourful Portraitist and Social Commentator
The work in question is the watercolour Fantasmones Siniestros ('Scary Ghosts'), which Kahlo painted in her diary in 1944. The artist gave it to Venezuelan art critic Juan Röhl, and it later came into the possession of New York-based gallery owner and dealer of Latin American art, Mary-Anne Martin, who sold it to a foundation and a private collector in 2004 and 2013. It may have been this collector that Mobarak acquired the watercolour from in 2015, as he explained to VICE Magazine.
See also: The Mystery of Frida Kahlo's Lost Masterpiece
As part of his Frida.NFT project, Mobarak invited a selected group of guests to his home in Miami on 30 July. The highlight of the event was the burning of Fantasmones Siniestros over a martini glass filled with dry ice and fuel. To add salt to the wound, the stunt was accompanied by a mariachi band, which played the well-known Mexican folk song Cielito Lindo.
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Frida Kahlo's burned work is now being offered as NFTs, of which 10,000 copies will be sold at $4,000 each. The entrepreneur claims that part of the proceeds from the sale will go to charity.
As expected, the act was not well received in the art world, and the Mexican authorities were anything but enthusiastic. It now remains to be clarified whether it was the original work by Frida Kahlo, whose value Mobarak states at $10 million, that was actually burned, or whether it was just a copy.
