From wikipedia: In 2006, 10 years after Eileen was stolen, MOBA was contacted by the purported thief demanding a $5,000 ransom for the painting; no ransom was paid, but it was returned anyway.
The reason for it being $6.50 is, according to Wikipedia, because "Occasionally a painting [from MOBA] may be purchased; at one time MOBA's policy was not to spend more than $6.50 on any piece. More recently, twice and even three times that amount has been paid for an exceptional work."
Wouldn’t surprise me if the person who painted it stole it. Either because they wanted it back or because they thought they could Mona Lisa the painting into being famous. Which kinda worked
@@peteface24 As i understand the story it was just another paining in the Louvre until it was stolen and then it became famous because it was returned/recovered
2:02 Just HEARING ABOUT this artwork is also heartbreaking. I saw a thing the other day about "Normalize Men Crying!" and they asked a bunch of college-age dudes "when was the last time you cried, and why?" and it ranged from "last night" to "a very long time ago", and there were a lot lot lot of "because my dog died" answers... But for me? It was "Just now, hearing about an artwork installation in Los Angeles..."
A lot of the HIV/AIDS epidemic-era artwork are quite sad. One that gets to me is "Electric Fan (Feel it Motherfuckers)" by John Boskovitch. You look at it, and it's a small box fan, but the story is that when his boyfriend died of AIDS, his family swept in and took everything. The box fan was all that was left of him. Strangely enough, also in LA, in the Museum of Contemporary Art.
The fact that Tom Lum’s first sentence after the question was finished was jokingly “really didn’t like that painting. Not a good painting” but was pretty much the answer is amazing. Especially as it wasn’t brought up again to once the answer was revealed.
My first thought was maybe the gallery had an exhibit where guests were meant to steal a specific painting and maybe got part of their admission fee back for its return as some sort of conceptual art piece… if the painting was actually just a reproduction people could either keep it as a souvenir (and it could be replaced as many times a day as needed) , or get the slight ticket discount 😂
In the 90s, a radio ad in the Boston area used to mention the MOBA comically. My wife and I decided to visit. Let's just say the museum collection matched the art. But back then, you could catch a movie after your visit.
It happened to Mona Lisa, so it literally happens to (some of) the best as well. Before the theft Mona Lisa was just another remarkable (but at the same time unremarkable) portrait.
@@57thornsI mean, except Mona Lisa wasnt even remarkable, so its even more similar. Mona Lisa was considered a bad example of good art at the time, tho it did at least fit in the good art category; it was just considered bottom of the rung until post thievin and the exposure it gained from that
I know this is completely random, but wanted to say, I just found this a week ago and I also randomly started watching some Only Connect episodes. I watched one episode in Season 3 thinking "this random English bloke sounds weirdly familiar" and only in the quarterfinals I realized it is a much younger Tom Scott from Lateral. I would absolutely never have realized it was the same Tom Scott if not for the voice.
I had a very similar experience to Tom here. Where eventually I realized it was the museum of bad art, which I had heard about before given I used to go to college in somerville mass (where the MOBA was physically located at the time, though I never paid it a visit).
The MOBA is a small room, in the basement of a movie theatre in Somerville. It's a funny neat little quirk of Boston, but I don't think it'd have been worth filming.
damn i was waiting for them to address the $6.50 price point, a different comment here said moba had a policy not to spend more than $6.50 on a piece but while watching i was thinking maybe that was just the price of public transport, gas or an uber for the thief to get back to the museum
So the question is, did the price go up after this? It seems that artwork is valued by its perception (if somebody wants it, it goes up, if it has something interesting, it goes up...). Even Mona Lisa was a cheap painting until it was stolen, only after that it became more famous and expensive...
I live a few blocks away from MOBA, and while it'd be sick to have Tom filming here in Somerville, no, it'd probably make for a terrible video, alas. :)
Have you heard of the German artist Joseph Beuys? Some of his art pieces tend to be legendary: for example, one piece was a bathtub smeared in butter. However, this didn't last really long. (I'll keep the rest for myself, so you can find out yourselves or the team can use it in an upcoming episode.)
We have a piece of art in the house that looks like a terrible piece of art. I call it kindergarten art but one person thinks it is wonderful. There is a lot of bad art that gets sold for millions. No accounting for taste.
