Mexican authorities investigate collector who destroyed Frida Kahlo drawing to promote NFT
Art collector and businessman Martín Mobarak has found himself in hot water with the Mexican authorities after he made the decision to burn a valuable Frida Kahlo artwork torn from the pages of her diary.
Mobarak destroyed the rare artwork by the legendary Mexican trailblazer in order to promote 10,000 NFTs which he created of the drawing. The legality of this is now being probed by the authorities.
Mobarak is the founder of Frida.NFT, and he set fire to the sketch known as Fantasmones Siniestros in a public promotional stunt in Miami back in July. His website later stated that the “painting was permanently transitioned into the metaverse.”
However, it is since been argued that you can’t simply destroy a work of art of note in order to drive up the value of your own vested ventures. Seeing as though Mobarak videoed and shared the incident, it caught the attention of Mexico’s National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature.
The institution has since commented: “In Mexico, the deliberate destruction of an artistic monument constitutes a crime in terms of the federal law on archaeological, artistic and historical monuments and zones.”
The whole thing has been muddied further still over questions about whether the drawing that was destroyed was a genuine Kahlo. Mobarak claimed he purchased it from a New York dealer in 2015 but she has since said that is a fabrication, and that she finds the “whole thing creepy”.
Mobarak, however, has since said that his destruction is a charitable venture. He said: “As the current owner of the paintings, I have a vision of creating perpetual donations to multiple organisations for the needy with royalties from the NFT sale and collection.”
With investigations still ongoing, further updates are expected in the coming weeks.
