Vanishing Point

In this episode, Olivia tells Emma the story of The Accidental Picasso Thief - a story about family, fate, coincidence, and adventure - all orbiting around a stolen Picasso painting. Special thanks to Whit Rummel for reaching out to us and letting us tell his family story."Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run, but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant.” - Hunter S. ThompsonSourcesRummel, W., & Charney, N. (2026). The accidental picasso thief: The true story of a reverse heist, outrunning the FBI, and fleeing the Boston Mob. Bloomsbury Academic. https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article312441876.htmlhttps://themobmuseum.org/notable_names/whitey-bulger/

In this episode, Emma tells Olivia the story of toddler painter extraordinaire Marla Olmstead in the early aughts. This story is intertwined with an examination of the documentary about Marla and her family, My Kid Could Paint That, directed by Amir Bar-Lev and released in 2007. We discuss the question of whether four year old Marla or her father Mark were completing her prolific abstract paintings, as well as the question of whether or not a documentary can ever tell us the truth. We explore the idea of an uncorrupted mind in childhood, the current age of child stars and toddler TikTok-ers, and the tragedy of prodigy. “It's not that there's no such thing as truth. But we come to like and trust a certain story… not necessarily because it's the most, absolutely truthful… but because it's a thing that we tell ourselves which makes sense of the world, at least at this moment.” -Michael Kimmelman, My Kid Could Paint ThatFollow us on http://instagram.com/vanishingpointpodhttps://vanishingpointpod.substack.com/SourcesMy Kid Could Paint That. Roma: Sony pictures home entertainment, 2008. Morgan, Douglas N. “Must Art Tell the Truth?” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 26, no. 1 (1967): 17–27. https://doi.org/10.2307/429241.Varnedoe, Kirk. “Your Kid Could Not Do This, and Other Reflections on Cy Twombly.” MoMA, no. 18 (1994): 18–23. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4381274.https://www.filminquiry.com/my-kid-could-paint-that-auteur/https://imagejournal.org/2008/09/05/marla-really-paint-matter/https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/movies/25kid.html

In our Knoedler Gallery Fraud series finale, we discuss the end of the Knoedler Gallery, the arrest of one of the fraudsters, and explore the De Sole lawsuit extravaganza. We ask the question of what authenticity means within the art world and how important it truly is, from the walls of a prestigious gallery in New York to the Chinese village of Dafen where art reproductions were famously made by the hundreds. And of course, we armchair analyze the notorious Ann Freedman. “And so art is dead, not only because its critical transcendence is gone, but because reality itself, entirely impregnated by an aesthetic which is inseparable from its own structure, has been confused with its own image.” - Jean Baudrillard, SimulationsFollow us on http://instagram.com/vanishingpointpodhttps://vanishingpointpod.substack.com/Sourceshttps://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/13/arts/fbi-art-crime-team.htmlhttps://www.thestar.com/entertainment/visual-arts/david-mirvish-acknowledges-fakes-in-new-york-art-fraud-scandal/article_84b3ab29-c05b-5e0d-9a1d-b23b7a80e4fa.htmlhttps://maddoxgallery.com/news/454-what-is-blue-chip-art/https://itsartlaw.org/art-law/wywh-knoedler-trial-uncut-week-1/https://www.clm.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/7830293_1-1.pdfVarga, Somogy and Charles Guignon, "Authenticity", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2023 Edition), Edward N. Zalta & Uri Nodelman (eds.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2023/entries/authenticity/>.https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/what-if-readers-like-ai-generated-fictionhttps://news.artnet.com/market/knoedler-fraud-trial-jack-flam-martha-parrish-419594https://brooklynrail.org/2014/03/art/the-held-essays-on-visual-artin-defense-of-faking-it/#_edn1https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/03/opinion/sunday/in-praise-of-art-forgeries.htmlhttps://hyperallergic.com/why-chinas-infamous-copycat-town-now-invests-in-original-artworks/https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why-chinas-art-market-is-evolving-from-knockoffs-to-new-workshttps://news.artnet.com/art-world/dafen-village-china-replicas-2672642

This week in The Vanishing Brief, we discuss some recent headlines in the art crime world including the recent Louvre Heist, a Picasso painting gone missing in transit, and a Nazi-looted painting discovered in an Argentine real estate listing.“I am not murdered, and I am not missing, but parts of me have been disappeared.” - Leanne Simpson Follow us on http://instagram.com/vanishingpointpodhttps://vanishingpointpod.substack.com/Sourceshttps://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/20/world/europe/france-louvre-jewel-heist.htmlhttps://www.cnn.com/2025/10/19/europe/robbery-louvre-paris-france-museum-closure-intlhttps://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/picasso-work-missing-madrid-granada-1234757797/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/this-tiny-picasso-painting-went-missing-while-traveling-to-an-exhibition-in-spain-180987533/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/19/world/europe/louvre-heist-items.htmlhttps://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/louvre-museum-closed-staff-protest-inadequate-security-1234757928/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/06/18th-century-portrait-stolen-by-nazis-recovered-in-argentinahttps://news.artnet.com/art-world/nazi-looted-portrait-real-estate-listing-argentina-2681421https://hyperallergic.com/1051349/french-museum-reports-theft-one-day-after-louvre-heist/https://hyperallergic.com/1051113/the-louvre-heist-was-a-colonial-wake-up-call/

In this episode, we continue the story of the Knoedler Gallery as the fourteen year long forgery ring that made the gallery millions began to crumble. We unveil the masterminds behind the fakes, including a man who delivered caviar to Sotheby's in an old ambulance and a master Chinese forger who could easily replicate Rothko's and Diebenkorns. We discuss the alarming red flags that gallery girl boss Ann Freedman somehow overlooked, a millionaire Gucci alum, and misspelled Pollock signatures. “Spectacle is the sun that never sets over the empire of modern passivity.”  - The Society of the Spectacle, Guy DebordFollow us on http://instagram.com/vanishingpointpodhttps://vanishingpointpod.substack.com/The Devil Wears Rothko: Inside the Art Scandal that Rocked the World by Barry AvrichMade You Look: A True Story About Fake Art. Directed by Barry Avrich, Melbar Entertainment Group, 2020.https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/3047https://www.nypl.org/about/divisions/wallach-division/art-architecture-collection/catalogue-raisonnehttps://anderson.stanford.edu/collection/ocean-park-60-by-richard-diebenkorn/

In this episode, we introduce the decades-long, $80 million forgery ring that took place within the prestigious Knoedler Gallery in New York City. We discuss the history of the long-standing gallery and its legacy, the calculated gallery director and art maestro Ann Freedman, and the movement at the heart of the story: Abstract Expressionism. Our story winds us through tales of forged Matisses, cannibalism allegations, a Jeffrey Epstein connection, and splatter paintings galore. “A picture lives by companionship, expanding and quickening in the eyes of the sensitive observer. It dies by the same token. It is therefore risky to send it out into the world. How often it must be impaired by the eyes of the unfeeling and the cruelty of the impotent.” - Mark RothkoFollow us on http://instagram.com/vanishingpointpodhttps://vanishingpointpod.substack.com/Some references for this episode:The Devil Wears Rothko: Inside the Art Scandal that Rocked the World by Barry AvrichWays of Seeing by John BergerMade You Look: A True Story About Fake Art. Directed by Barry Avrich, Melbar Entertainment Group, 2020.https://theconversation.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-knoedler-new-yorks-most-notorious-art-gallery-53775https://www.nytimes.com/1964/02/16/archives/the-new-nihilism-art-versus-feeling.htmlhttps://www.artsy.net/gene/abstract-expressionismhttps://www.moma.org/collection/terms/abstract-expressionism/a-distinctly-american-stylehttps://sothebysinstitute.com/articles/how-to-series-art-forgery/https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-the-8-most-prolific-forgers-in-art-history-that-we-know-ofhttps://www.finance.senate.gov/ranking-members-news/wyden-releases-new-information-on-financing-of-jeffrey-epsteins-operations-by-billionaire-leon-black-seeks-documents-from-trump-administrationhttps://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/modern-art-was-cia-weapon-1578808.htmlhttps://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20161004-was-modern-art-a-weapon-of-the-ciahttps://www.theartnewspaper.com/2000/11/01/knoedler-and-seattle-art-museum-settle-over-matisse-lawsuithttps://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/05/knoedler-gallery-forgery-scandal-investigation?srsltid=AfmBOoothQybbHMCjb-b_N02mvl5hT1MzL1f9mjuv2cevm_wVWmD9VMJhttps://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/03/arts/design/abstract-expressionism-women.html?searchResultPosition=3

In this episode, Emma tells Olivia about the 1961 theft of Francisco Goya's Portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery in London. This story takes us through flamboyant ransom letters, the question of television licenses, and of one man's journey as a rebel looking for his cause. “When a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual round of entertainments, when serious public conversation becomes a form of baby-talk, when, in short, a people become an audience, and their public business a vaudeville act, then a nation finds itself at risk; culture-death is a clear possibility.”― Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show BusinessFollow us on http://instagram.com/vanishingpointpodhttps://vanishingpointpod.substack.com/Some references for this episode:Hirsch, Alan, and Noah Charney. The Duke of Wellington, Kidnapped!: The Incredible True Story of the Art Heist That Shocked a Nation. Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint, 2017. Hughes, Robert. Goya. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003. Postman, Anew, and Neil Postman. Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. New York: Penguin Books, 2014. Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington by Lord Alfred Tennysonhttps://www.thetimes.com/world/us-world/article/dee-wells-h3n83v0kxfwhttps://www.theartnewspaper.com/2005/03/01/the-national-gallery-purchases-raphaels-madonna-of-the-pinks-what-we-knowhttps://pricelessblog.squarespace.com/articles/goyas-portrait-of-the-duke-of-wellington-thefthttps://www.britannica.com/biography/Francisco-Goyahttps://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20220221-the-duke-the-bus-driver-a-goya-masterpiece

In this episode, Olivia tells Emma the wild story of the rare book heist that took place at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky in 2004. “I suppose at one time in my life I might have had any number of stories, but now there is no other. This is the only story I will ever be able to tell.” - Donna Tartt, The Secret HistoryFollow us on http://instagram.com/vanishingpointpodhttps://vanishingpointpod.substack.com/SourcesAmerican Animals. Directed by Bart Layton. Film4Productions. 2018“John J. Audubon’s Birds of America.” Audubon, http://www.audubon.org/birds-of-america.Falk, John. “The Untold Story of the ‘Transy Book Heist.’” Vanity Fair, 13 Feb. 2015, http://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/2015/02/transy-book-heist.Stegemeyer, Pete. HEIST: An Inside Look at the World’s 100 Greatest Heists, Cons, and Capers (From Burglaries to Bank Jobs and Everything In-Between). Simon and Schuster, 2021.

In our final episode on the 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa, we catch back up with Picasso and Apollinaire who have just been arrested. We explore the truth of the theft and its perpetrator, growing tensions on the world stage as Europe prepares for war, an Argentine criminal art magnate, a French forger with an unlikely technique, and conspiracies born from the media spectacle of the case. “Everywhere one seeks to produce meaning, to make the world signify, to render it visible. We are not, however, in danger of lacking meaning; quite the contrary, we are gorged with meaning and it is killing us.”  - Jean BaudrillardFollow us on http://instagram.com/vanishingpointpodhttps://vanishingpointpod.substack.com/Some references for this episode:Vanished Smile: The Mysterious Theft of Mona Lisa by R.A. ScottiMona Lisa: The Picture and the Myth by Roy McMullenThe Thefts of the Mona Lisa: The Complete Story of the World’s Most Famous Artwork by Noah CharneyThe Death of Guillaume Apollinaire by Tristan TzaraThe Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Walter Benjamin “Work of Art as Analyst as Work of Art” by Laura Gonzalez, from Transpositions: Aesthetico-Epistemic Operators in Artistic Research, edited by Michael Schwabhttps://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2013/12/the-mona-lisa-heist/https://www.britishmuseum.org/about-us/british-museum-story/contested-objects-collectionhttps://www.nytimes.com/1941/12/05/archives/karl-decker-dies-correspondent-73-hearst-reporter-many-years.html

In this episode, we travel back in time to Paris in 1911 to the Louvre where one of the most iconic paintings of all time is discovered missing: the Mona Lisa. In the first episode of our two-part series, we explore the inception of the painting and its captivating hold on both kings and museum viewers alike, la Belle Époque and the art movements that arose, the advent of photojournalism and sensationalism in the media, and a dastardly gang of punk artists and poets challenging the status quo of the art world. Thanks for listening!“The picture becomes more wonderful to us than it really is and reveals to us a secret of which, in truth, it knows nothing.” - Oscar WildeFollow us on http://instagram.com/vanishingpointpodhttps://vanishingpointpod.substack.com/Some references for this episode:Sources:Vanished Smile: The Mysterious Theft of Mona Lisa by R.A. ScottiMona Lisa: The Picture and the Myth by Roy McMullenThe Thefts of the Mona Lisa: The Complete Story of the World’s Most Famous Artwork by Noah CharneyPicasso and His Friends by Fernande Olivier Ways of Seeing by John Bergerhttps://www.thoughtco.com/the-belle-epoque-beautiful-age-1221300https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/guillaume-apollinaire