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Show Notes:
In this episode, Zahra opens with a headline that sounds like clickbait: a Picasso recovered during a drug raid in Paris. It's not clickbait. That discovery pulls her into a world of art heists she never knew existed — including one of the biggest in French history, a thief the art world nicknamed Spider-Man, and over 1,000 Picasso works that have simply vanished.
Meanwhile, Sami finally delivers the JR episode. It started with a lithograph in Toulon that he misidentified. Behind it was one of the most compelling careers in street art — from a Paris banlieue kid who found a camera in the Metro, to the most ambitious project of his life: turning Paris's oldest bridge into a walkthrough cave. Sami saw it from the river. It closed June 28th. He never made it inside.
Highlights:
- A Picasso worth up to $20 million found in a drug raid — two weeks ago
- Why Picasso is the most stolen artist in history
- The 2010 Musée d'Art Moderne heist: five masterworks, no alarms, one very opportunistic thief
- The "Spider-Man" of the art world and how a commissioned theft spiraled out of control
- JR: from Paris suburbs to global street artist
- How a camera found in the Metro changed everything
- Face to Face (2007): Israeli and Palestinian portraits, side by side on the same wall
- La Caverne du Pont Neuf: 120 metres, five senses, and a Daft Punk soundtrack
- Why JR self-finances everything — and how to own one of his works
- Context is everything: what Sami learned revisiting that Toulon lithograph
- Video of The Cavern: https://youtu.be/RHRa9icEwes?si=r_Bw-QryoGCrPu0Q
Artists & Figures Mentioned:
- Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Georges Braque, Amedeo Modigliani, Fernand Léger — 2010 heist
- JR (Jean René) — French street artist and photographeur
- Christo and Jean-Claude — the artists who inspired La Caverne
- Thomas Bangalter (Daft Punk) — electroacoustic soundscape for La Caverne
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