WEBVTT - Dragon Psychology 101 0:00:15.356 --> 0:00:15.796 Pushkin. 0:00:20.516 --> 0:00:23.316 Starting today, if you don't live in New York State, 0:00:23.316 --> 0:00:25.196 you're gonna have to pay a mandatory entrance fee to 0:00:25.276 --> 0:00:26.676 visit the Metropolitan Museum. 0:00:27.036 --> 0:00:31.396 Eyewitness News ABC seven, New York, March first, twenty eighteen. 0:00:32.876 --> 0:00:35.116 The new policy was announced in January, but it took 0:00:35.116 --> 0:00:39.036 effect today. Adults who do not have ID proving that 0:00:39.116 --> 0:00:41.156 they live right here in New York have to pay 0:00:41.156 --> 0:00:44.196 twenty five dollars. Seniors will pay seventeen dollars. 0:00:44.756 --> 0:00:47.396 If I had to pinpoint the beginning of my obsession 0:00:47.396 --> 0:00:50.996 with art museums, it would be the moment the Metropolitan Museum, 0:00:51.236 --> 0:00:54.276 one of the greatest museums in the world, decided to 0:00:54.396 --> 0:00:58.876 impose entrance fees. It was a difficult time for the institution. 0:00:59.396 --> 0:01:02.436 They had a forty million dollar deficit. They got rid 0:01:02.436 --> 0:01:06.996 of ninety employees, Exhibitions were canceled, there was a shakeup 0:01:07.036 --> 0:01:09.556 in the leadership. Up and down the Upper East Side 0:01:09.596 --> 0:01:13.036 of Manhattan, there was hand ringing and a great gnashing 0:01:13.036 --> 0:01:17.356 of teeth. I remember one New York Times headline from 0:01:17.356 --> 0:01:22.956 that time, is the met Museum a great institution in decline. 0:01:23.156 --> 0:01:27.196 That was followed by one expression of anguish after another, 0:01:27.676 --> 0:01:31.196 including this from the former chairman of the METS Drawings 0:01:31.276 --> 0:01:36.436 and Print Department. To have inherited a museum as strong 0:01:36.476 --> 0:01:39.236 as the MET was ten years ago, with a great 0:01:39.476 --> 0:01:42.916 curatorial staff, and to have it be what it is 0:01:42.996 --> 0:01:49.236 today is unimaginable. Well exactly because for the life of me, 0:01:49.636 --> 0:01:53.356 I couldn't imagine how it was. The MET was crying poverty. 0:01:53.876 --> 0:01:56.156 I mean, they have one of the largest and most 0:01:56.276 --> 0:02:00.956 valuable art collections in the world one point five million objects. 0:02:01.316 --> 0:02:03.836 What's all that art worth? I don't know, one hundred 0:02:03.836 --> 0:02:07.236 billion dollars more. The MET might be the richest non 0:02:07.316 --> 0:02:11.476 profit institution in human history. All they would have to 0:02:11.516 --> 0:02:14.756 do is pick a couple things off the shelf and 0:02:14.796 --> 0:02:17.756 then never see a deficit again. This is like Jeff 0:02:17.756 --> 0:02:21.116 Bezos firing the gardener because he's out of cash. Just 0:02:21.156 --> 0:02:24.356 go to the ATM, Jeff. But they couldn't do it. 0:02:25.036 --> 0:02:27.636 They would rather fire people and make a family of 0:02:27.676 --> 0:02:30.196 four cough up to one hundred dollars at the gate 0:02:30.756 --> 0:02:33.236 than even think of parting with a single one of 0:02:33.236 --> 0:02:39.596 their possessions. Why it's a puzzle, And it is for 0:02:39.676 --> 0:02:48.796 puzzles like this that we have revisionist history. My name 0:02:48.876 --> 0:02:51.796 is Malcolm Gladwell, you're listening to my podcast about Things 0:02:51.876 --> 0:02:57.316 Overlooked and Misunderstood. This is our fifth season, five years 0:02:57.356 --> 0:03:02.636 of digression, high dudgeon, needless provocation, and my absolute favorite 0:03:03.116 --> 0:03:08.276 grand unified theories. In this season of Revision's History, I 0:03:08.316 --> 0:03:11.876 want to explore or our emotional attachment to objects and 0:03:11.996 --> 0:03:15.516 rituals and tradition and the way in which those attachments 0:03:15.636 --> 0:03:19.596 betray us. And in this first episode, I would like 0:03:19.636 --> 0:03:22.876 to make sense of the strange relationship of the art 0:03:22.916 --> 0:03:24.756 world to art. 0:03:39.316 --> 0:03:42.156 During his thirty one year tenure as director of the 0:03:42.196 --> 0:03:46.476 Metropolitan Museum of Art, Philippe de Montebello, the mets eighth 0:03:46.516 --> 0:03:50.876 and longest serving director, guided the acquisition of more than 0:03:51.036 --> 0:03:53.196 eighty four thousand works of art. 0:03:54.036 --> 0:03:56.756 I found this in a video series called Great Museums. 0:03:57.196 --> 0:04:01.116 An episode from twenty ten, An Acquiring Mind, lots of 0:04:01.156 --> 0:04:05.156 wide angle shots of marble floored galleries in guilt frame paintings. 0:04:05.716 --> 0:04:09.316 NPR Susan Stamberg narrates over what sounds like an orchestra 0:04:09.836 --> 0:04:10.716 right there on the set. 0:04:11.036 --> 0:04:15.196 Born in France, educated at Harvard in nineteen sixty three, 0:04:15.276 --> 0:04:18.236 de monte Bello brought a background in European page. 0:04:18.236 --> 0:04:20.716 The film runs for an hour. It's about the most 0:04:20.796 --> 0:04:24.836 famous director of the Met, Philippe de Montebello, descendant of 0:04:24.876 --> 0:04:28.516 a noble French family. In particular, it's about how much 0:04:28.516 --> 0:04:31.476 stuff Philippe de Montebello bought during his thirty one year 0:04:31.516 --> 0:04:35.716 tenure as head of the Met. Tapestries, African sculptures, a 0:04:35.756 --> 0:04:39.396 fabulous premiere, an evening gown that's to die for. He 0:04:39.396 --> 0:04:41.116 even bought things he didn't want to buy. 0:04:41.716 --> 0:04:46.316 Philippe has been an incredible director for supporting the acquisitions 0:04:46.316 --> 0:04:49.796 of objects of great quality from across the globe. 0:04:49.956 --> 0:04:53.676 It goes on and on about the acquiring, to the 0:04:53.676 --> 0:04:56.796 point where you wonder, or at least I wondered, Wait, 0:04:57.476 --> 0:04:59.156 I thought you didn't have any money. 0:04:59.596 --> 0:05:05.756 Today, nearly two million objects, comprising an encyclopedic treasury of 0:05:05.836 --> 0:05:09.076 world art are contained in the Met's growing color. 0:05:10.196 --> 0:05:13.196 Apparently I was wrong in the numbers. Not one point 0:05:13.236 --> 0:05:17.796 five million objects, two million objects. Let me give you 0:05:17.836 --> 0:05:22.076 an example, maybe my favorite example of this weirdness in 0:05:22.116 --> 0:05:24.996 the art world. It has to do with a public 0:05:25.036 --> 0:05:27.916 hearing held in July of nineteen ninety one at the 0:05:27.916 --> 0:05:33.636 Financial Accounting Standards Board Better known as the FASB. The 0:05:33.676 --> 0:05:37.556 FASB is the Vatican of the American accounting profession, and 0:05:37.596 --> 0:05:40.996 this was one of the occasional open sessions the FASB 0:05:41.156 --> 0:05:44.036 holds in order to share with the broader American public 0:05:44.356 --> 0:05:49.036 subjects of grave concern to the accounting universe. The venue 0:05:49.156 --> 0:05:54.796 was the FASB's Norwalk, Connecticut headquarters. The subject accounting for 0:05:54.916 --> 0:05:59.316 contributions received and contributions made, and capitalization of works of art, 0:05:59.356 --> 0:06:01.436 historical treasures, and similar assets. 0:06:02.996 --> 0:06:03.836 The room was packed. 0:06:04.636 --> 0:06:07.476 They videotaped the proceedings so people could watch in the 0:06:07.516 --> 0:06:11.476 overflow room. I've read a transcript of the hearing, all 0:06:11.556 --> 0:06:14.556 nine hundred and forty seven pages of it, and I 0:06:14.556 --> 0:06:17.676 would like to direct your attention to a particular exchange. 0:06:18.116 --> 0:06:22.516 It was between the then chairman of the FASB, Dennis Beresford, 0:06:22.876 --> 0:06:29.756 and a man named C. Douglas Dylan. Dylan was a 0:06:29.796 --> 0:06:34.156 tall man, gray suit patrician a certain stature. He was 0:06:34.236 --> 0:06:37.196 former director of Dylan Red and Co. The Wall Street 0:06:37.196 --> 0:06:40.196 firm founded by his father, and was possessed of maybe 0:06:40.236 --> 0:06:44.356 the greatest resume in mid century America. U S Treasury 0:06:44.436 --> 0:06:48.036 Secretary for much of the nineteen sixties, Ambassador to France, 0:06:48.476 --> 0:06:51.996 chair of the Brookings Foundation, President of the Harvard Board 0:06:52.036 --> 0:06:55.676 of Overseers, a close friend of John Rockefeller the third, 0:06:56.116 --> 0:07:01.316 a world class collector of Impressionist art, and, most relevant 0:07:01.316 --> 0:07:04.676 for the purposes of the hearing that day, chairman of 0:07:04.716 --> 0:07:09.556 the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The 0:07:09.636 --> 0:07:14.836 American Establishment sent its biggest gun to confront the FASB 0:07:15.516 --> 0:07:19.236 over the agency's proposal to change the rules surrounding the 0:07:19.276 --> 0:07:23.196 accounting for contributions received and contributions made, and capitalization of 0:07:23.236 --> 0:07:27.596 works of art, historical treasures, and similar assets. The accountants 0:07:27.756 --> 0:07:30.636 wanted the art world to follow the same accounting rules 0:07:30.676 --> 0:07:36.756 as other businesses. Dylan versus Dennis Beresford, chairman of the FASB, 0:07:37.516 --> 0:07:40.556 member of the American Accounting Hall of Fame and the 0:07:40.556 --> 0:07:46.196 Financial Executive's International Hall of Fame. Way back on day 0:07:46.236 --> 0:07:49.116 one of the proceedings in question, Beresford had made a 0:07:49.196 --> 0:07:51.716 plane that he wasn't going to stand for any nonsense. 0:07:52.476 --> 0:07:52.796 So C. 0:07:52.996 --> 0:07:57.796 Douglas Dillon was restrained in his objections. Gracious, I'm going 0:07:57.876 --> 0:08:00.796 to guess this was his first visit to Norwalk, Connecticut. 0:08:01.836 --> 0:08:04.796 The room must have been hushed right. I mean, it's C. 0:08:05.036 --> 0:08:09.916 Douglas freaking Dylan. He does a little preamble careful explains 0:08:09.956 --> 0:08:13.476 how outraged the MET is at the intrusion of accountants 0:08:13.556 --> 0:08:17.476 into their business, launches into a vivid description of the 0:08:17.476 --> 0:08:21.116 extraordinary size of the METS collection. And then, and this 0:08:21.196 --> 0:08:24.596 is maybe my favorite part of the entire nine hundred 0:08:24.596 --> 0:08:29.756 and forty seven page transcript, Dylan says, quote, we have 0:08:30.036 --> 0:08:33.436 a new curator of Islamic art, been with us for 0:08:33.516 --> 0:08:37.036 a couple years now. We have certainly the greatest collection 0:08:37.196 --> 0:08:40.676 of Islamic rugs in the Western Hemisphere, one of the 0:08:40.876 --> 0:08:44.516 two or three in the world. He has never been 0:08:44.556 --> 0:08:48.036 able to even see that collection because so much of 0:08:48.076 --> 0:08:51.396 it is in storage and is so difficult to get out, 0:08:51.956 --> 0:08:55.796 so costly and time consuming. That he knows by the 0:08:55.876 --> 0:08:58.956 records what they are, but he hasn't been able to 0:08:58.956 --> 0:09:03.956 look at them. C. Douglas Dillon is speaking to an 0:09:03.996 --> 0:09:08.516 audience of accountants. Accountants are people who like to count things. 0:09:09.116 --> 0:09:11.796 More than that, they are people who believe, as a 0:09:11.836 --> 0:09:16.396 matter of deep professional principle, that everything can be counted. 0:09:16.876 --> 0:09:19.476 And they have proposed that the art world agreed to 0:09:19.516 --> 0:09:23.436 start counting things like everyone else, and in response, this 0:09:23.596 --> 0:09:27.556 pillar of the American establishment shows up in suburban Connecticut 0:09:27.636 --> 0:09:32.076 and says, we can't count our things. There's just too 0:09:32.116 --> 0:09:35.196 many of them. They're all buried somewhere in storage. To 0:09:35.236 --> 0:09:37.756 give you an example, the guy who was responsible for 0:09:37.796 --> 0:09:41.516 our Islamic rug collection, maybe the greatest Islamic rug collection 0:09:41.596 --> 0:09:44.156 in the world. Mind you, has never even seen our 0:09:44.196 --> 0:09:48.556 Islamic rug collection. I have to say, this is where 0:09:48.556 --> 0:09:55.556 the art world loses me. So I called up the 0:09:55.556 --> 0:09:59.556 staffer at the FSB who organized that hearing all those 0:09:59.596 --> 0:10:02.556 long years ago. His name is Ron Bassio. 0:10:03.156 --> 0:10:03.756 Just retired. 0:10:04.476 --> 0:10:06.956 This is a good exercise for a seventy three year 0:10:06.996 --> 0:10:08.956 old to test the memory to go back. 0:10:09.196 --> 0:10:12.356 Yes, I'm very impressed. 0:10:13.156 --> 0:10:16.996 Bossio returned to his old offices at FASB headquarters to 0:10:17.036 --> 0:10:19.516 take my call so he would have access to the 0:10:19.556 --> 0:10:23.756 critical documents. So I'm just going to pull up the 0:10:23.796 --> 0:10:27.156 financial statements of the Metropolitan Museum and I want to 0:10:27.316 --> 0:10:29.676 just want to very briefly walk through. 0:10:31.076 --> 0:10:33.596 I was just wondering if they could be googled up 0:10:33.636 --> 0:10:34.316 here as well. 0:10:34.436 --> 0:10:38.756 Yeah, he's on his computer, I'm online. We're downloading the 0:10:38.796 --> 0:10:43.396 Metropolitan Museum of Arts twenty nineteen annual report and locating 0:10:43.796 --> 0:10:48.236 the crucial part the statements of financial position. Beginning on 0:10:48.276 --> 0:10:54.116 page forty four, I have cash receivable for investments sold 0:10:54.836 --> 0:11:01.036 retail inventories. These are all straightforward accounts receivable, straightforward contributions 0:11:01.116 --> 0:11:06.756 receivable and makes the pledges. Financial statements for almost any 0:11:06.876 --> 0:11:10.476 organization look pretty much the same. You start by listing 0:11:10.596 --> 0:11:15.436 your assets, everything of value. Then you list your liabilities loans, mortgages, 0:11:15.516 --> 0:11:18.796 pension obligations. Then you balance them. That's why it's called 0:11:18.836 --> 0:11:22.196 a balance sheet. Bossio and I are going down the 0:11:22.196 --> 0:11:25.716 list of the METS assets. Then there's investments, which I'm 0:11:25.756 --> 0:11:29.076 assuming is the endowment three point se could. 0:11:28.876 --> 0:11:32.796 Be endowment, or it could be just investments in total. 0:11:32.836 --> 0:11:34.876 They may not all be part of the endowment. 0:11:34.996 --> 0:11:39.196 Then I have fixed assets three hundred and ninety three million, 0:11:39.636 --> 0:11:41.636 and then I have collections. 0:11:40.996 --> 0:11:41.716 And I have nothing. 0:11:42.956 --> 0:11:46.156 It's supposed to be a precise accounting of everything that 0:11:46.236 --> 0:11:49.596 MET has of value, the amount the museum made last 0:11:49.636 --> 0:11:52.436 year from selling stocks, the amount of cash it has 0:11:52.476 --> 0:11:56.156 on hand, it's endowment, the amount is owed from various creditors, 0:11:56.396 --> 0:11:59.316 the amount of god in gifts and donations, even the 0:11:59.396 --> 0:12:03.316 value of the inventory in its gift shop, everything, and 0:12:03.356 --> 0:12:05.316 they add it all up, and they come up with 0:12:05.356 --> 0:12:11.676 a number total assets next to the line item entitled collections, 0:12:12.316 --> 0:12:15.236 that is to say, the millions of unimaginably rare and 0:12:15.276 --> 0:12:18.996 precious art objects owned by the museum. The eighteen van goes, 0:12:19.036 --> 0:12:22.596 the forty six Picassos, the twenty Rembrandts. There is no 0:12:22.676 --> 0:12:27.316 dollar figure, nothing, It's blank. All it says is see 0:12:27.316 --> 0:12:33.836 note A. Okay, ah here it is note A in 0:12:33.916 --> 0:12:38.836 the appendix. It says, in conformity with accounting policies generally 0:12:38.876 --> 0:12:42.996 followed by art museums, the value of the museum's collections 0:12:43.556 --> 0:12:47.116 has been excluded from the statement of financial position. 0:12:48.276 --> 0:12:51.676 Excluded. This is a. 0:12:51.636 --> 0:12:55.276 Multi billion dollar organization with yes, billions and billions of 0:12:55.756 --> 0:12:58.956 dollars in art, and it's none of it is listed 0:12:58.996 --> 0:13:02.756 on there in a financial statement. This seems I don't 0:13:02.756 --> 0:13:04.636 even understand how that started. 0:13:04.676 --> 0:13:07.556 Well, that was your reaction is similar to the reaction 0:13:07.676 --> 0:13:09.076 that some of our board members had. 0:13:11.116 --> 0:13:13.236 On top of that, it turns out that the met 0:13:13.276 --> 0:13:17.156 would rather charge admission, cut exhibitions, and get rid of 0:13:17.276 --> 0:13:21.156 ninety people than sell anything, even though they have so 0:13:21.276 --> 0:13:24.276 many things like Islamic rugs that the guy running the 0:13:24.316 --> 0:13:27.196 Islamic rug collection hasn't even seen any of his Islamic 0:13:27.276 --> 0:13:31.836 rugs because they're all in storage somewhere. In fact, most 0:13:31.836 --> 0:13:35.716 of the METS collection is in storage, huge football field 0:13:35.796 --> 0:13:39.916 sized warehouses, presumably somewhere in New Jersey, full of stuff. 0:13:41.636 --> 0:13:44.716 And when the FASB says, why don't you tell us, 0:13:45.116 --> 0:13:48.036 like a normal institution, just how much your stuff is worth? 0:13:48.116 --> 0:13:49.156 Because I don't know. 0:13:49.556 --> 0:13:51.836 Maybe it would be easier to think rationally about how 0:13:51.876 --> 0:13:54.996 to run things if you knew that fact, the MET 0:13:55.076 --> 0:13:59.636 goes crazy, dispatches c Douglas Dillon to Norwalk, Connecticut to 0:13:59.676 --> 0:14:03.036 say never, not on my watch. We've never done that 0:14:03.196 --> 0:14:05.236 and we never will. 0:14:08.156 --> 0:14:12.516 Yeah, this is unlike any other business. You're supposed to 0:14:12.556 --> 0:14:15.876 carry assets at either book or market value, and you're 0:14:15.876 --> 0:14:19.916 supposed to put them in your financial reports, and they don't. 0:14:20.396 --> 0:14:23.316 This is Michael O'Hare, who teaches in the Business School 0:14:23.356 --> 0:14:27.476 of Berkeley. If you ask anyone, anyone who knows the 0:14:27.556 --> 0:14:30.436 way around a bounce sheet about the way museums record 0:14:30.516 --> 0:14:33.316 their assets, you get the Michael O'Hare response. 0:14:34.036 --> 0:14:37.156 I was talking about this at some conference in somebody 0:14:37.196 --> 0:14:40.676 from an orchestra. Some financial person from an orchestra said, 0:14:40.836 --> 0:14:43.716 wait a minute, you mean you buy a painting and 0:14:43.756 --> 0:14:48.436 then it just disappears. And that's what happens. There's an 0:14:48.476 --> 0:14:51.756 expense and then that's the last we hear about it 0:14:51.796 --> 0:14:52.756 in the financial records. 0:14:52.796 --> 0:14:54.436 It's quite quite bizarre. 0:14:54.916 --> 0:14:57.596 For the longest time, I would bore everyone I met 0:14:57.636 --> 0:15:00.836 with how strange I found all this until one day 0:15:01.236 --> 0:15:04.116 I was in Holland on my book tour. In Leiden, 0:15:04.556 --> 0:15:06.516 out with a bunch of people in a bar, and 0:15:06.556 --> 0:15:08.836 I told the group the story of the epic showdown 0:15:08.836 --> 0:15:13.196 between Dennis Beresford and C. Douglas Dillon, and this one guy, 0:15:13.276 --> 0:15:19.076 a philosopher, said, Oh, it's like Smog. Smog, the dragon 0:15:19.116 --> 0:15:21.396 from the Hobbit who sits on a mountain of treasure. 0:15:22.476 --> 0:15:25.716 Smog doesn't want to use his gold, he doesn't wear 0:15:25.756 --> 0:15:28.676 it out to dragons social events. He does not list 0:15:28.716 --> 0:15:32.476 his holdings on his annual dragon financial statement. He just 0:15:32.516 --> 0:15:39.356 wants to hoard it. And I'm like, oh, my god, Smog, Yes, 0:15:40.036 --> 0:15:42.236 that explains everything. 0:15:44.036 --> 0:15:46.956 There was an old dragon and a gray stone. His 0:15:47.036 --> 0:15:50.956 red eyes blinked as he lay alone. His joy was dead, 0:15:51.076 --> 0:15:53.756 and his youth spent. He was knobbed and wrinkled, and 0:15:53.796 --> 0:15:56.756 his limbs bent in the long years to his gold chain, 0:15:57.876 --> 0:16:00.036 his heart's furnished the fired Wayne. 0:16:02.236 --> 0:16:08.236 This is J. R. R. Tolkien reading his poem The Horde. 0:16:07.116 --> 0:16:11.116 To his belly slime gem stuck silver and gold with 0:16:11.276 --> 0:16:11.836 snuff and. 0:16:11.836 --> 0:16:18.236 Lick to his belly's slime gems stuck thick. That's what 0:16:18.276 --> 0:16:20.756 happens when a dragon sits on his treasure for too long, 0:16:23.156 --> 0:16:25.636 and the stuff that couldn't fit under his belly the 0:16:25.716 --> 0:16:46.276 dragon has buried deep inside his lair in storage. Following 0:16:46.316 --> 0:16:49.396 that epiphany in the bar in Leiden, I resolved to 0:16:49.436 --> 0:16:53.076 perform a field test of the hypothesis that art museums 0:16:53.116 --> 0:16:57.716 are modern day versions of the dragon's smog. This was 0:16:57.916 --> 0:17:00.116 a few months back. I was going to be in 0:17:00.156 --> 0:17:03.316 Pittsburgh for another reason anyway, so I decided to pay 0:17:03.316 --> 0:17:07.356 a visit to the Andy Warhol Museum, the largest museum 0:17:07.436 --> 0:17:11.556 devoted to a single artist in North America. So I 0:17:11.556 --> 0:17:14.836 made an appointment with the museum's curator of art, Jessica Beck, 0:17:15.396 --> 0:17:17.836 and on a bright and cold morning in Pittsburgh, I 0:17:17.916 --> 0:17:20.636 headed out to the city's North Shore neighborhood to the 0:17:20.676 --> 0:17:24.756 beautiful old warehouse that holds the museum. I told Beck 0:17:25.076 --> 0:17:27.556 I didn't want to see just the collection, the art 0:17:27.636 --> 0:17:31.316 on the walls. I wanted to see everything. So Beck 0:17:31.396 --> 0:17:35.476 graciously took me upstairs to the archives. Were just off 0:17:35.516 --> 0:17:39.796 the staircase. There were dozens of brown cardboard boxes stacked 0:17:39.796 --> 0:17:40.636 in neat piles. 0:17:41.836 --> 0:17:44.316 Oh I see. Oh they're like. 0:17:44.796 --> 0:17:52.076 They're covered in plastic and you know, kept behind glass. Yeah, 0:17:52.116 --> 0:17:54.076 so this again is just a portion of on my 0:17:54.316 --> 0:17:54.796 whole mother. 0:17:55.396 --> 0:17:56.836 Yeah, wait, how many are here? 0:17:57.076 --> 0:18:03.956 See the cardboard boxes? How's what Warhol called his time capsules. 0:18:04.156 --> 0:18:06.676 There are six hundred and ten of them in total. 0:18:07.236 --> 0:18:09.996 He would put things in these cardboard boxes boxes, tape 0:18:09.996 --> 0:18:13.356 them shut, and set them aside. But he also had 0:18:13.396 --> 0:18:17.516 other boxes, idea boxes what are called basement boxes. After 0:18:17.556 --> 0:18:20.956 Warhol died, everything was shipped to Pittsburgh in an armada 0:18:20.956 --> 0:18:24.396 of tractor trailers. The museum's best guess is that in 0:18:24.476 --> 0:18:28.236 their archive they have at least five hundred thousand objects. 0:18:29.276 --> 0:18:31.276 And so all the other boxes are behind our door. 0:18:31.596 --> 0:18:34.076 Yeah, the rest of them are back there. 0:18:34.156 --> 0:18:37.956 Yeah, but it's not something I can see that I'm not. 0:18:37.996 --> 0:18:40.916 Sure, and I can ask, we can find out because 0:18:40.916 --> 0:18:41.636 I wasn't sure. 0:18:42.916 --> 0:18:46.276 We found one of Warhol's time capsules that had been opened. 0:18:46.876 --> 0:18:49.756 It was on the counter like a patient etherized upon 0:18:49.796 --> 0:18:51.876 a table. We peered inside. 0:18:52.356 --> 0:18:55.716 So this is his fifty suit, oh, nineteen fifty six, 0:18:55.916 --> 0:18:59.676 Hong Kong, so his first trip to Asia. A lot 0:18:59.756 --> 0:19:01.556 of them are closed right now because we're sort of 0:19:01.676 --> 0:19:05.396 trying to figure out how to keep the objects from shifting. 0:19:06.996 --> 0:19:09.916 I was suddenly curious. I wanted to see inside one 0:19:09.956 --> 0:19:12.956 of the clothes boxes. Beck said she didn't have the 0:19:13.036 --> 0:19:15.756 authority to open one up, but she made a few calls. 0:19:16.036 --> 0:19:17.396 Finally she found someone. 0:19:17.596 --> 0:19:21.156 Oh, okay, we have some Okay, that's take a look. 0:19:23.116 --> 0:19:25.756 Another of the museum's staff hurried towards us. 0:19:26.156 --> 0:19:28.116 This is John Malcome. 0:19:29.236 --> 0:19:31.676 Yeah, so we're just gonna peek into one, just to 0:19:31.676 --> 0:19:32.396 get a sense of what. 0:19:34.876 --> 0:19:35.716 I was expressing. 0:19:35.796 --> 0:19:38.316 You know that a lot of things are unfolders. 0:19:37.756 --> 0:19:37.916 But. 0:19:39.756 --> 0:19:42.476 So theyre's they're heavy. Yeah, they're you know, like weigh 0:19:42.556 --> 0:19:44.476 forty or fifty pounds in some cases. 0:19:45.796 --> 0:19:48.636 John positioned himself in front of the box and began 0:19:48.796 --> 0:19:53.236 opening it up. His movements were assured, practiced. 0:19:54.716 --> 0:19:57.756 So, yeah, we treat the box itself like it's part 0:19:57.796 --> 0:20:00.916 of an object, so that's why I wear the gloves. 0:20:01.596 --> 0:20:05.356 So these would have been boxes that Andy would have 0:20:05.436 --> 0:20:10.156 this assistant store things in. We've taken the time to 0:20:10.516 --> 0:20:15.436 align the boxes with this folder type material so that 0:20:15.516 --> 0:20:19.596 the objects in the box do not touch the acidic 0:20:19.636 --> 0:20:24.076 cardboard of the original box, and they're kind of packaged. 0:20:24.236 --> 0:20:27.396 Very objects in here packaged in it's sort of a 0:20:27.436 --> 0:20:33.876 Tetris kind of way with folders that are marked in catalog. 0:20:34.996 --> 0:20:37.436 So in its original form, this stuff would have been. 0:20:39.596 --> 0:20:41.116 Just crammed in it. 0:20:41.276 --> 0:20:43.236 I wasn't sure what I was expecting to see in 0:20:43.276 --> 0:20:50.036 the box. Drawings, notes, makeshift sculptures, old canvases, the working 0:20:50.076 --> 0:20:50.956 life of an artist. 0:20:52.076 --> 0:20:54.716 So this is a pretty cool one. A lenticular of 0:20:54.876 --> 0:20:56.516 the daisies. 0:20:57.796 --> 0:20:59.876 Did he make that or is that just something you bought? 0:21:00.876 --> 0:21:02.076 That was probably something he bought. 0:21:02.836 --> 0:21:05.076 At best, he would have commissioned to be made. And 0:21:05.196 --> 0:21:07.036 I think this was something that was purchased and then 0:21:07.396 --> 0:21:09.916 used as an inspiration for us later work. And you 0:21:09.956 --> 0:21:11.956 can smell it, right, do you do you smell? That's 0:21:12.196 --> 0:21:14.236 that's the object itself off gassing. 0:21:16.716 --> 0:21:19.956 The lenticular is one of those pieces of cardboard with 0:21:19.996 --> 0:21:22.356 an image on it that's printed in such a way 0:21:22.396 --> 0:21:25.076 that it looks like it has three dimensions. They're big 0:21:25.116 --> 0:21:27.796 with children. This one had flowers on it. 0:21:28.556 --> 0:21:32.276 Sometimes we find like notes like well the Andy's intent, 0:21:32.436 --> 0:21:37.116 like why he was collecting this along with the objects that, 0:21:37.556 --> 0:21:39.596 you know what we consider sort of source material. 0:21:40.836 --> 0:21:43.916 Yeah, so he's got like six enticulars in that. 0:21:44.116 --> 0:21:46.236 Yep, in that top folder. 0:21:47.396 --> 0:21:51.476 Along with John continued digging deeper, deeper into the same box. 0:21:52.476 --> 0:21:55.196 We found an old movie scrapboard that once belonged to 0:21:55.236 --> 0:21:57.996 a fan somewhere, a bunch of eight by ten glossies 0:21:57.996 --> 0:22:01.636 of movie stars Clark Gable, Bing Crosby, the seal Ball. 0:22:02.836 --> 0:22:04.036 Do you want to go one more folder? 0:22:05.196 --> 0:22:07.396 Yeah, let's do. We'll do one last, one last folder. 0:22:07.436 --> 0:22:07.956 It'll be cool. 0:22:08.436 --> 0:22:10.156 So here as we looked at a piece of what 0:22:10.276 --> 0:22:13.436 seemed like junk mail an invite to an art opening. 0:22:14.796 --> 0:22:16.316 So we even keep the paper clips. 0:22:17.116 --> 0:22:17.956 I see. 0:22:18.956 --> 0:22:24.316 Yeah, it's quite particulous. Yeah, everything is got, it's still 0:22:24.396 --> 0:22:29.676 are John started whispering. 0:22:30.356 --> 0:22:31.436 It seemed appropriate. 0:22:32.516 --> 0:22:34.876 We were deep in the dragon's lair. 0:22:40.556 --> 0:22:43.676 Now, why are Andy Warhol's time capsules full of junk? 0:22:44.516 --> 0:22:45.796 Because he collected junk? 0:22:46.196 --> 0:22:49.156 Well, if you wanted to meet Andy Warhol, all you 0:22:49.236 --> 0:22:51.596 had to do in the eighties was go to the 0:22:51.636 --> 0:22:55.636 flea market, the sixth Avenue flea Market. 0:22:56.076 --> 0:22:59.716 I'm in New York talking with Simon Dunan writer fashionista. 0:23:00.236 --> 0:23:03.756 In fact, I just would searched flea market in the 0:23:03.796 --> 0:23:07.036 Warhol diaries, and it comes up about twelve times, because 0:23:07.036 --> 0:23:11.596 he's always going to coming from blah blah blah. 0:23:11.876 --> 0:23:13.916 I've known Simon ever since he wrote a book called 0:23:13.956 --> 0:23:17.996 Eccentric Glamour years ago, which included chapters on Simone de 0:23:18.036 --> 0:23:23.596 Beauvoir till the Swinton, the Supermodel, Immon, and Me, which 0:23:23.636 --> 0:23:28.236 remains the most preposterously inaccurate but nonetheless deeply flattering thing 0:23:28.356 --> 0:23:30.316 anyone has ever written about me. 0:23:31.276 --> 0:23:34.316 I love Simon Douna. Anyway. 0:23:34.596 --> 0:23:37.836 Back in the day, Simon knew Andy Warhol and the 0:23:37.876 --> 0:23:39.396 flea market where he hung out. 0:23:39.676 --> 0:23:44.596 It was a protean fleamark. He kept growing, expanding, retreating 0:23:45.036 --> 0:23:48.036 anytime there was a new law available. The flea market 0:23:48.236 --> 0:23:52.876 expanded and it was a significant social scene. Like I 0:23:52.916 --> 0:23:57.196 remember seeing Katherine Deneuve there and it was just a 0:23:57.276 --> 0:23:59.396 place that you went if you were in New York. 0:23:59.676 --> 0:24:02.956 It was a way of you know, checking everybody out, 0:24:03.276 --> 0:24:04.436 meeting your friends. 0:24:05.236 --> 0:24:09.236 We were in Simon's apartment and impossibly sheep worn of rooms. 0:24:09.716 --> 0:24:11.796 I could walk you around and show you many things 0:24:11.796 --> 0:24:15.796 that Jonathan and I or I myself bought at the 0:24:15.996 --> 0:24:19.156 six seven and flea market. That bust of Michael Jackson, 0:24:19.196 --> 0:24:22.716 which people think is that Jeff Coons was ten bucks 0:24:23.316 --> 0:24:24.036 at the flea. 0:24:23.876 --> 0:24:29.636 Market, Po, Jeff good Have you told Jeff Goods? Simon 0:24:29.676 --> 0:24:33.476 didn't found treasure at the flea market. Everyone did, but 0:24:33.556 --> 0:24:36.396 Warhol treated his treasure a little differently. 0:24:36.756 --> 0:24:41.996 When Andy Warhol died, it emerged that he had not 0:24:42.196 --> 0:24:44.596 unpacked most of this stuff that he'd got at the 0:24:44.676 --> 0:24:48.076 flea market. There were these stories, I think in Vanity 0:24:48.196 --> 0:24:51.836 Fair about his house packed with shopping bags that he'd 0:24:51.876 --> 0:24:55.196 gotten at the flea market. When he bought his Russell 0:24:55.276 --> 0:25:00.356 Right china, he collected. He collected those cookie jars famously. 0:25:00.836 --> 0:25:05.036 He would buy those toysher chocolates. He was obsessed with them, 0:25:05.076 --> 0:25:07.876 but he would chew them and spit them out, you know, 0:25:07.876 --> 0:25:12.876 because he was was very concerned about keeping his trim 0:25:12.916 --> 0:25:17.036