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Speaker 1: Ridiculous crime. It's a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Elizabeth Dutton. Nice to see him, my friend.

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Speaker 3: How you been, you know, fair in a Midland. How

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Speaker 3: are you.

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Speaker 2: I'm enjoying February, yeah, are you? Yeah? It's the shortest month.

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Speaker 2: So I'm like, I we're.

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Speaker 3: Gonna get through this, you know, power through.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you know down. So I got a question for you. Yes,

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Speaker 2: you know it's ridiculous, Yes, I do. First, it seems

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Speaker 2: to say yes.

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Speaker 4: First, I need to acknowledge that it was Esther uh

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Speaker 4: Esther on Instagram who sent us a thing about monkeys

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Speaker 4: putting grass up their butts.

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Speaker 3: It's like a fashion statement.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you're back with more animals.

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Speaker 3: But I finally found it a.

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Speaker 2: Winter of dark animal butts.

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Speaker 4: So heinous. Anyway, it's so anous. No, but you know

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Speaker 4: it is ridiculous.

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Speaker 2: No, I do not.

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Speaker 4: I have a question that's ridiculous. No, No, what's your

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Speaker 4: favorite condiment?

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Speaker 2: My favorite condiment? Yeah, I don't even think like that.

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Speaker 4: Let's talk to my refrigerator is like all condiments.

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Speaker 5: I know.

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Speaker 2: So neither one of us can answer this question. Apparently

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Speaker 2: my favorite condiment. For lack of a I'm just gonna

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Speaker 2: go for the first one. I can think of Russian

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Speaker 2: hot mustard.

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Speaker 4: Okay, I'd say mustard in general would be my if

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Speaker 4: you were to ask.

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Speaker 2: Me, I put on more things. What's yours, Elizabeth?

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Speaker 3: Must mustard mustard. I like mendocino mustard.

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Speaker 2: Okay, some of those sweet hot mustard.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. What's your third thing?

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Speaker 2: Horse radish?

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Speaker 3: You don't like mayo?

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Speaker 2: No? I mean I used to eat miracle whip like

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Speaker 2: sometimes if I made, like, you know, leftover Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches,

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Speaker 2: because my mother would have it around.

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Speaker 3: But it's not like real, man, No, it's fake.

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Speaker 2: It's like the margarine to butter for mayonnaisees butter. And

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Speaker 2: then you know, people like you who've made food for

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Speaker 2: me with mayo have taught me that I don't absolutely

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Speaker 2: hate mayo. I still just don't reach for it.

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Speaker 3: Right, I got you?

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Speaker 2: What about you? What's your third favorite? Elizabeth?

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Speaker 3: I don't know.

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Speaker 4: Maybe chili crisp. Here's my question? What are your feelings

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Speaker 4: on ketchup?

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Speaker 2: I consider ketchup an underrated spice. Oh okay, I'm not

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Speaker 2: a seven year old boy, but I do like it.

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Speaker 2: It's a I like all red sauce if it's a

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Speaker 2: red sauce. I probably like it.

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Speaker 4: Well, then have I got something for you? And I

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Speaker 4: gotta tell you I am so this isn't a mashup.

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Speaker 2: It's not. No, your face says it is.

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Speaker 4: I just have a devilish look on my face all

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Speaker 4: the time. It's not a mashup. I have to tell

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Speaker 4: you that I signed you up for an alert on

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Speaker 4: this that when it drops you can get it. It's

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Speaker 4: a Hein's keg chup. Many rude dudes have told us

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Speaker 4: about this. It's a keg of ketchup from Hines.

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Speaker 2: When would you ever need? Are you going to like

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Speaker 2: a Buffalo Bills game and.

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Speaker 4: You're going to like pre game and you're one hundred

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Speaker 4: and fourteen ounces of rich, thick Heinz ketchup, one hundred

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Speaker 4: and fourteen ounces in a sleek aluminum keg design, completely

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Speaker 4: of precision pouring tap. Okay, So it's just basically it's

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Speaker 4: got like the little pump top. Like if you go

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Speaker 4: to some like Burger Giants, they have you still the

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Speaker 4: little paper cups and they have someone here slathering it

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Speaker 4: on chicken strips, which I don't know are you supposed to?

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Speaker 3: I don't think that's that works. They have this like

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Speaker 3: sexy video sexy where it's all.

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Speaker 2: Sweaty bending that one fit.

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Speaker 4: Sweaty keg and like you see the drips and then

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Speaker 4: you see like the pulsating ketchup coming out of the sky.

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Speaker 2: Lord give me patience.

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Speaker 4: Anyway, Like I said, it's so they're introducing it. You

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Speaker 4: have to sign up pours slow will go fast. Sign

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Speaker 4: up to get notified when you get your own heinz

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Speaker 4: keg chup. This is it the Heines website. Of course

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Speaker 4: I did look first name, last name, email and fill

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Speaker 4: that out for you, but I also opted out of

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Speaker 4: the marketing emails for you.

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Speaker 2: I'm gonna have to get a whole new email just so.

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Speaker 4: But you could get like a big old thing of ketchup.

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Speaker 4: It says for when one bottle's just not enough.

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Speaker 2: I think I'm going to get you a singing telegram

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Speaker 2: just because that's more by speed. I have that sent

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Speaker 2: to your house, all right.

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Speaker 3: I don't have to open my door, that's true.

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Speaker 2: I'll tell them that though, sing.

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Speaker 3: Through the door, go to the side window.

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Speaker 2: If they don't answer through the keg.

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Speaker 4: Full of ketchup. You know what that is ridiculous? All right,

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Speaker 4: you can go now, it's your turn.

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Speaker 2: At least it was a show.

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Speaker 3: Tell me what's ridiculous?

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Speaker 2: No, I got something ridiculous for you. Imagine Conning Jack Nicholson.

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Speaker 3: I think I could imagine that.

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Speaker 2: You could. Well, you don't have to imagine it, because

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Speaker 2: I'm going to tell you the story of someone who

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Speaker 2: decided that's a good idea.

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Speaker 3: All right.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, this is Ridiculous Crime, a podcast about absurd and

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Speaker 5: outrageous capers, heights and cons.

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Speaker 2: It's always ninety nine percent murder free and one hundred

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Speaker 2: percent ridiculous. Yes, Elizabeth Sar. You know, we cover a

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Speaker 2: lot of art crimes on here. For one, they're typically nonviolent,

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Speaker 2: which I know you like.

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Speaker 3: Love that.

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Speaker 2: They're often ambitious and unhinged, which.

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Speaker 3: I like and I love that too.

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Speaker 2: That is true. Also, they typically have the wildest tangents

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Speaker 2: in side quests, sometimes which include celebrities, which we both like.

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Speaker 3: Well, they don't go after the working class.

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Speaker 2: Or just any innocent person. That pretty much at all

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Speaker 2: for the most part, for the most part. Now this

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Speaker 2: one has all of that and then sum So meet

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Speaker 2: Todd Michael Volpa. Hi. Now, when he was born, he

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Speaker 2: was originally named Todd Mitchell Vulpa, but later he renamed himself.

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Speaker 2: He dropped one D from Todd to which he claims

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Speaker 2: was his mother's original intent. He also changed his middle

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Speaker 2: name from Yes.

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Speaker 3: His mom was originally like one D.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, who over wrote her?

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Speaker 3: The dad?

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Speaker 2: I think maybe the nurse at the hospital. She's like,

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Speaker 2: I none of that nonsense. I don't know, maybe, but

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Speaker 2: I do know. He also changed his middle name from

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Speaker 2: Mitchell to Michael. Okay, now that was not his mother's intent.

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Speaker 2: He did that for his own, very specific reason. He

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Speaker 2: was inspired, Elizabeth by the archangel Michael, who has slayed

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Speaker 2: the dragon as Saint Michael. You know that story, Saint

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Speaker 2: Michael and the Dragon. So, yeah, as he told the

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Speaker 2: New York Times, quote, that's what I thought I was

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Speaker 2: doing in the art world, slaying the dragon.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 4: I thought he was gonna be like, it's all about Philip,

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Speaker 4: Michael Thomas, Jan Michael Vincent.

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Speaker 2: I know you always like that.

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Speaker 3: I love.

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Speaker 2: But we'll get back to the slang the art world later. Now.

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Speaker 2: For as for his last name, Vulpa, he kept that

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Speaker 2: one unchanged and it was fitting though, because, as he's

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Speaker 2: pointed out to The New York Times, in Italian, the

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Speaker 2: word volpa means fox, yeah, which obviously fits who he is,

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Speaker 2: because he's cunning like a fox. Now, Todd Michael Volpa

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Speaker 2: was the son of an Italian tailor. He was raised

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Speaker 2: in Yonkers, which is I check the map just above

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Speaker 2: and to the left of the bronx. Okay, so there.

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Speaker 2: His family struggled economically. However, young Todd had his eyes

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Speaker 2: fixed on the horizon, and I don't mean the bronx.

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Speaker 2: He planned to make something of himself one day, something

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Speaker 2: beyond being the son of an Italian tailor. However, before

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Speaker 2: that day arrived, before he could find his future on

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Speaker 2: his own and escape being the poor son of a tailor,

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Speaker 2: he bucked social expectations and he didn't follow his dad

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Speaker 2: into the tailor industry. Instead, as a teen, he found

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Speaker 2: a different line of work that involved dressing people, though

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Speaker 2: only in his case his clients were dead. You see,

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Speaker 2: Young Todd worked as an assistant to a mortician. Oh oh,

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Speaker 2: and in Baumber's Apprentice.

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Speaker 3: That's good, you know, that's steady work totally.

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Speaker 2: I mean the lot of you. Someone dies every day,

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Speaker 2: so we're lucky. Working for a mortician taught old Todd

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Speaker 2: a ton of vital skills that would come in handy

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Speaker 2: later on. For instance, he learned how to care for

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Speaker 2: relatives of the deceased. He learned to soothe their worries

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Speaker 2: and concerns, to listen to them, to really get at

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Speaker 2: the heart of their emotions in the moment and speak

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Speaker 2: to those He also learned how, despite their grief, to

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Speaker 2: upsell them into price your purchases. Todd also learned how

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Speaker 2: to grow a business by focusing on the folks who

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Speaker 2: often get overlooked but who are also key referrals for

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Speaker 2: new customers. See being a mortician's assistant. That meant he

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Speaker 2: learned a curry favor with hospital staff, nursing home employees

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Speaker 2: beat cops of the NYPD and mob and that's not

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Speaker 2: a good one. And that is how Elizabeth once snowy

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Speaker 2: Christmas Eve, young Todd was working at a rowboat pulling

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Speaker 2: floaters out of the Hudson River, literally dragging up new business. Yes,

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Speaker 2: he had a very interesting teenage years.

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Speaker 3: Now what was that? That wasn't part of his job?

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Speaker 2: Was it finding new work? Finding bodies?

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Speaker 3: He just went around looking for bodies in the river.

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Speaker 2: Have you ever seen the movie Mother Jugs and Speed?

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Speaker 3: No?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Well it was with rockel Welch, the guy who

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Speaker 2: played j R. On the on the Ewings? What is

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Speaker 2: it on Dallas?

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Speaker 3: Yeah?

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Speaker 2: And then Bill Cosby they play ambulance drivers, right, Larry Hagman,

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Speaker 2: it's a movie, I know, but I'm saying back then

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Speaker 2: the ambulances would compete for business, so they would both

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Speaker 2: show up to a car accident and then try to

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Speaker 2: get the person in the ambulance because it wasn't all

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Speaker 2: worked out.

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Speaker 4: But wouldn't the coroner have to claim the like, take

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Speaker 4: the body, identify the body.

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Speaker 2: Apparently if he pulled it on the boat. He telling

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Speaker 2: people chose it to a b cop. They can write

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Speaker 2: out the death.

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Speaker 3: Telling people I told this.

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Speaker 2: I don't know how it works. I wasn't in New

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Speaker 2: York in the late sixties.

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Speaker 4: He made up this story and you bought it, hooklan

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Speaker 4: and go for it.

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Speaker 3: You didn't, You didn't think critically.

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Speaker 2: I should have fact checked this. You really? On his

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Speaker 2: twenty first birthday, Elizabeth, this story comes from his memoir,

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Speaker 2: So another one. He could be him lying to me.

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Speaker 3: He's full of he's full of bull crack.

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Speaker 2: Well, he came to work with his mortician boss, and

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Speaker 2: what does he find waiting for him? If you set

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Speaker 2: a birthday gift, since it his twenty first birthday, you'd

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Speaker 2: be dead wrong. Oh, dead wrong.

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Speaker 5: Oh.

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Speaker 2: What he found was instead a corpse on the table

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Speaker 2: waiting for him, all ready to be prepped and preserved.

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Speaker 2: Only this birthday corpse was dressed in a red ribbon,

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Speaker 2: just like a gift waiting to be opened. Ew mortician's

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Speaker 2: sense of humor, I guess now this was another business lesson,

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Speaker 2: though for him he learned that working as a mortician's

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Speaker 2: assistant the importance of presentation.

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Speaker 4: But I mean, like, what if you you find out

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Speaker 4: that that's you know, that's your uncle and.

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Speaker 2: That he's been not to a mortician.

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Speaker 4: Ain't no, I know, But like if I you know,

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Speaker 4: you said you go in there, you.

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Speaker 2: Well, hopefully nowhere from the family sees this. This is

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Speaker 2: all back of the house. This is like on a

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Speaker 2: table now. But back then you had so many places

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Speaker 2: no one would ever see.

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Speaker 3: You could get away with so much back.

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Speaker 2: Oh my god, the Panopticon was so far from coming

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Speaker 2: into being. People didn't have to worry. There's a long

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Speaker 2: they're like, you know, the old idea of being a

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Speaker 2: back room. There were back rooms everywhere.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, So this.

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Speaker 2: Is going down in a back room. I like it anyway,

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Speaker 2: all of this would serve him well in the art world.

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Speaker 2: These lessons he learned as being in Ambalmber's Apprentice and

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Speaker 2: that Elizabeth was the world he dreamed of one day joining. Now,

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Speaker 2: he of course cast about and being a tailor's son,

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Speaker 2: and he looked for a role model, someone he could

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Speaker 2: be like, because if you can see it, you can

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Speaker 2: be it. So he's like going to need somebody who

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Speaker 2: I was like, that's why I want to be like.

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Speaker 2: His role model that he picked was an art dealer,

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Speaker 2: and that's what I'd like to be one day. And

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Speaker 2: this art dealer was a man named Joseph duven He

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Speaker 2: was one of the most famous, I'm talking world famous

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Speaker 2: and unscrupulous art dealers of the early twentieth century. Oh wow,

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Speaker 2: oh yeah. Duvine was British. He was technically I should

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Speaker 2: I guess give his status. He was the first Baron

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Speaker 2: Duvene if you're keeping score. He was the son of

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Speaker 2: an art dealer himself, and he was educated in the UK,

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Speaker 2: and then he kind of was. He turned Loose's talents

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Speaker 2: on America. You see, Duvine used his British pedigree to

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Speaker 2: schmooze and manipulate the nouveau riche Americans looking to buy

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Speaker 2: great art.

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Speaker 3: Oh yeah, it got an accent.

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Speaker 2: Oh my completely. And his clients is like a who's

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Speaker 2: who list of robber barons and American oligarchs. His client

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Speaker 2: list included names like JP Morgan, William Randolph Hurst, John D. Rockefeller,

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Speaker 2: Andrew Mellon, Henry Clay Frick. I mean, like you throw

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Speaker 2: a dart at a board of Robert barons.

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Speaker 3: That's the gallery.

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Speaker 4: I did not come across editor.

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Speaker 2: Possibly, but he was more of an art dealer than

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Speaker 2: a gallerist. So being an art dealer, he would ship

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Speaker 2: European masterpieces across the Atlantic over to America. And doing

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Speaker 2: this he makes a huge fortune. Right, He's providing respectability

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Speaker 2: to the robber barons and their new wealth, and the

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Speaker 2: art that he sold them would become basically the key

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Speaker 2: pieces of America's great museums. Sure so. Duvene, however, was

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Speaker 2: known to have a let's say, less respectful attitude towards

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Speaker 2: the masterpieces than one would expect or hope for from

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Speaker 2: a highly regarded art For instance, Devine would often pay

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Speaker 2: to restore the masterpieces. So can we like shine that up.

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Speaker 2: So he would tell the restorers, baby, scrape off all

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Speaker 2: that old yellowed varnish and apply a slick, new high

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Speaker 2: gloss finish for the Americans. God, So that way the

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Speaker 2: artwork would show up and be all glistening and gleaming. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: and I mean, like, you know, really, who wants a

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Speaker 2: dusty old masterpiece for them? Ount they're spending on this,

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Speaker 2: not America's newly minted robber barons. Now, It's also alleged

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Speaker 2: that Duvene would often sell the now vareish American industrialist

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Speaker 2: fake masterpieces it because you know who among them could

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Speaker 2: tell a fraud from the real thing.

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Speaker 3: True.

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Speaker 2: So, one key to Divine's success in the art world

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Speaker 2: was that he understood human behavior. He could manipulate it

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Speaker 2: like the practice fingers of a pianist playing a steinway right.

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Speaker 2: He knew how to create height, He knew how to

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Speaker 2: satisfy desires sometimes, like, for instance, he would bribe the

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Speaker 2: house staff of a robber baron to learn what it

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Speaker 2: was that they were truly coveting, and then he would

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Speaker 2: just show up with that Oh my God, that makes

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Speaker 2: the sales process far easily and far more lucrative. So

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Speaker 2: Devine was this art dealer and full on scoundrel, right,

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Speaker 2: but his presentation was impeccable, and as such he became

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Speaker 2: the ideal role model for an unscrupulous wannabe art dealer

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Speaker 2: like Todd Michael Volpan.

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Speaker 3: Playing generations later.

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Speaker 2: Right, Yes, he's like doing this in the twenties, and

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Speaker 2: now Todd Michael Volpa is basically working in the late sixties.

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Speaker 2: In fact, in nineteen sixty eight he officially goes into

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Speaker 2: business as an art dealer. He and his cousin Vance Jordan,

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Speaker 2: they purchased this old dilapidated warehouse in the Soho neighborhood

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Speaker 2: of New York. And this, by the way, was long

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Speaker 2: before Soho was cool. It's real estate highly valuable. This

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Speaker 2: is when edgy artists and galleries were just first pouring

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Speaker 2: into the area to take advantage of the cheap rents

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Speaker 2: of the old industrial building, and they were turning that

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Speaker 2: hood into the Soho we'd recognize today. So the Jordan

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Speaker 2: Volpa Gallery, it opened for business at four fifty seven

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Speaker 2: West Broadway at Houston Street, Okay, right now, thus the

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Speaker 2: Solo Yeah, So there they offered artwork to the latest

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Speaker 2: generation of new money Americans. Looking to buy status and respectability.

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Speaker 2: He's like, oh, I can find me some industrialist types, now, Elizabeth.

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Speaker 2: The Jordan Volpa Gallery collection, it first began with a

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Speaker 2: simple recliner chair, just a chair chair, you see. Vulpa

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Speaker 2: he was visiting a friend and he saw this recliner.

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Speaker 2: It was old, but it also had this quality that

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Speaker 2: was unmistakable. So also curiously, it bore this three word

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Speaker 2: phrase that the designer slashed like furniture builder etched into it.

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Speaker 2: And the phrase was alse ick khan, which means the

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Speaker 2: best I can do. Now. That furniture maker's name was

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Speaker 2: Gustav Stickley, and he was so charmed by this that

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Speaker 2: Vulpa bought the sticky recliner from his friend for seventy

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Speaker 2: five dollars. Now, to give you a little backstory on

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Speaker 2: Gustav Stickley, He's this furniture maker who'd very much gone

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Speaker 2: his own way during the Victorian era, back when opulent

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Speaker 2: design was all the rage. Stickley preferred simple design, so

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Speaker 2: what some would call Puritan style. Anyway, Stickley's recliner was

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Speaker 2: the start of a collection of arts and craft furniture

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Speaker 2: that would set the Jordan Volpa Gallery on its road

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Speaker 2: to success in the nineteen seventies and also changed the

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Speaker 2: art world. Yeah, because for the next decade, these two

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Speaker 2: cousins they popularized what came to be called mission art pieces,

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Speaker 2: which I love, I know you do now. They also

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Speaker 2: made their name as dealers of arts and craft furniture.

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Speaker 2: They made that the hip thing in the seventies. And

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Speaker 2: this is where Vulpa's fox like understanding of human nature

348
00:16:22,560 --> 00:16:25,600
Speaker 2: and his earnest imitation of the British art dealer Devine

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00:16:25,720 --> 00:16:28,760
Speaker 2: they merged to create his business model for his gallery.

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Speaker 2: No Volpa was particularly good at marketing. He would come

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Speaker 2: up with ingenious displays that played up the arts appeal.

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Speaker 2: In a very short time, his gallery made a name

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Speaker 2: for itself as the next big thing in the New

354
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Speaker 2: York arts scene. That's at this point taking off, right, Yeah,

355
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Speaker 2: not since the fifties had New York had been as

356
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Speaker 2: cool as it was in the seventies. And Stickley's furniture

357
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Speaker 2: becomes the new must have item for any self respecting

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Speaker 2: collector in the nineteen seventies New York arts scene. So, Elizabeth,

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00:16:53,040 --> 00:16:55,200
Speaker 2: you would see, like when a buyer would walk into

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Speaker 2: the Jordan Volpa gallery, they'd be met with what looked

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00:16:57,960 --> 00:17:01,120
Speaker 2: to be basically artifacts from this disappear era of like

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00:17:01,480 --> 00:17:05,399
Speaker 2: undervalued American art. Right, this really like simple furniture and

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00:17:05,920 --> 00:17:09,880
Speaker 2: would then use dramatic lighting to cast these the art

364
00:17:10,280 --> 00:17:13,080
Speaker 2: and turn them into like not just a hand fashioned recliner,

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00:17:13,119 --> 00:17:17,840
Speaker 2: but this simple yet unique artistic statement. People loved his presentations.

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Speaker 2: This Taylor's son, this former mortician's assistant. He knew how

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Speaker 2: to set a scene and create a memorable display. In fact,

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00:17:25,200 --> 00:17:27,960
Speaker 2: his gallery shows the lighting style he used, his presentation

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00:17:28,080 --> 00:17:31,480
Speaker 2: aesthetic all of that. It's still hip and popular to

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00:17:31,560 --> 00:17:34,359
Speaker 2: this day. You will find imitators aping it all around

371
00:17:34,359 --> 00:17:37,280
Speaker 2: the world today. Oh yeah, he like set the mode

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Speaker 2: now as a result Vulpa's you know I arresting displays.

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Speaker 2: Thanks to those, the doors of the Jordan Volpa Gallery

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00:17:43,400 --> 00:17:47,199
Speaker 2: become this portal for art world icons and celebrities. Like

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00:17:47,200 --> 00:17:50,280
Speaker 2: on any given day you might see artists like Andy

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00:17:50,280 --> 00:17:54,199
Speaker 2: Warhol or Robert Maplethorpe just perusing the scene. Or you

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00:17:54,280 --> 00:17:57,720
Speaker 2: might find famous buyers like Malcolm Forbes Forbes Magazine, or

378
00:17:58,040 --> 00:18:03,040
Speaker 2: Mario Cuomo of New York Politicans marry out anyway. One

379
00:18:03,119 --> 00:18:06,080
Speaker 2: day in walks, the actor Jack Nicholson and It's hard

380
00:18:06,119 --> 00:18:09,560
Speaker 2: to convey to young folks today how cool Jack Nicholson

381
00:18:09,720 --> 00:18:13,359
Speaker 2: was in the nineteen seventies. But imagine the coolest straight

382
00:18:13,440 --> 00:18:16,240
Speaker 2: male celebrity you can think of, Yeah, and then double it.

383
00:18:16,359 --> 00:18:18,600
Speaker 2: That's how cool he was. I did find I was

384
00:18:18,600 --> 00:18:21,000
Speaker 2: looking for quotes about this, but I've found mostly like

385
00:18:21,040 --> 00:18:22,880
Speaker 2: movie reviews, and they would kind of hint at like, oh,

386
00:18:22,880 --> 00:18:25,199
Speaker 2: he's the new brand. All this stuff was like, how

387
00:18:25,240 --> 00:18:27,680
Speaker 2: do we convey it? I found a writer from Time

388
00:18:27,720 --> 00:18:30,960
Speaker 2: magazine who once wrote of Jack Nicholson the quote, more

389
00:18:31,000 --> 00:18:35,160
Speaker 2: than any other actor alive, Jack happily looms like some

390
00:18:35,240 --> 00:18:39,400
Speaker 2: trickster colossus over the entire Hollywood landscape, and no one

391
00:18:39,640 --> 00:18:42,080
Speaker 2: anywhere begrudges him his dominion.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, you're gonna sell it.

393
00:18:44,320 --> 00:18:48,080
Speaker 4: So falling around with Angelica Houston totally and they're just

394
00:18:48,240 --> 00:18:52,480
Speaker 4: like And he was such a phenomenal actor.

395
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Speaker 3: I mean, I'm sure he still could pull it out

396
00:18:54,840 --> 00:18:55,280
Speaker 3: if he had to.

397
00:18:55,520 --> 00:18:57,080
Speaker 2: And also he did all the things of like having

398
00:18:57,119 --> 00:18:59,679
Speaker 2: a little hint of danger, a bunch of sexiness in

399
00:18:59,720 --> 00:19:01,760
Speaker 2: a re for an attitude, but also he could do

400
00:19:01,840 --> 00:19:04,320
Speaker 2: his job, so he was competent. He wasn't relying on

401
00:19:04,400 --> 00:19:05,120
Speaker 2: any of those.

402
00:19:04,920 --> 00:19:06,879
Speaker 3: And I like that. He now is just like, to

403
00:19:06,960 --> 00:19:08,720
Speaker 3: hell with everything, I just do what I want.

404
00:19:08,840 --> 00:19:12,200
Speaker 2: Yes, exactly, kind of always that way. So imagine this

405
00:19:12,320 --> 00:19:15,479
Speaker 2: same trickster colossus striding into one of the Hippis New

406
00:19:15,520 --> 00:19:18,359
Speaker 2: art galleries and soho to shop for some stickly furniture,

407
00:19:18,720 --> 00:19:21,040
Speaker 2: and Jack likes what he sees, so he buys some art.

408
00:19:21,280 --> 00:19:23,520
Speaker 2: Then later on Jack wants to buy some more art,

409
00:19:23,760 --> 00:19:26,760
Speaker 2: and suddenly the Jordan Volpa Gallery has the coolest man

410
00:19:26,760 --> 00:19:29,840
Speaker 2: in Hollywood, if not the world, regularly swinging by. Yeah,

411
00:19:29,880 --> 00:19:32,679
Speaker 2: this alone was huge for the gallery, but this Elizabeth

412
00:19:32,760 --> 00:19:35,800
Speaker 2: was just the beginning for Todd Michael Volpa. As he

413
00:19:35,880 --> 00:19:38,639
Speaker 2: recalled and I quote, I was the center of the

414
00:19:38,680 --> 00:19:41,639
Speaker 2: American art world in New York for ten years. My

415
00:19:41,760 --> 00:19:45,040
Speaker 2: first relationship was with Jack Nicholson. He started buying and

416
00:19:45,080 --> 00:19:49,919
Speaker 2: selling art. Eventually I became his dealer, and that became

417
00:19:50,000 --> 00:19:53,600
Speaker 2: the beginning of his crime career. Oh no, take a

418
00:19:53,600 --> 00:19:56,119
Speaker 2: little break, and when we get back Elizabeth, Todd Michael

419
00:19:56,160 --> 00:20:20,720
Speaker 2: Volpa goes to Hollywood. Oh boy, and we're back Elizabeth. Okay,

420
00:20:20,760 --> 00:20:23,040
Speaker 2: So where were we? All right? It's the nineteen seventies,

421
00:20:23,119 --> 00:20:25,959
Speaker 2: late nineteen seventies, The Jordan Volpa gallery is at the

422
00:20:26,000 --> 00:20:29,160
Speaker 2: center of this new energy that's revitalizing the New York

423
00:20:29,240 --> 00:20:32,680
Speaker 2: arts scene. He's making mad money for himself, one of

424
00:20:32,720 --> 00:20:36,240
Speaker 2: the owners. This gallery has rich New Yorkers buying flea

425
00:20:36,320 --> 00:20:39,480
Speaker 2: market fines for top dollar. And this all starts to

426
00:20:39,520 --> 00:20:42,879
Speaker 2: attract members of the new Hollywood acting scene, namely and

427
00:20:42,920 --> 00:20:46,160
Speaker 2: most notably Jack Nicholson. And this is when the dam

428
00:20:46,320 --> 00:20:51,639
Speaker 2: bursts for Volpa. In his memoir entitled Framed Todd, Michael

429
00:20:51,680 --> 00:20:53,640
Speaker 2: Volpa tells his own story as best as he can

430
00:20:53,720 --> 00:20:56,080
Speaker 2: remember it, and his memoirs is filled with all these

431
00:20:56,119 --> 00:20:58,680
Speaker 2: like wild anecdotes, especially from his time selling art to

432
00:20:58,720 --> 00:21:01,680
Speaker 2: celebrities obviously, and there's this one story of him selling

433
00:21:01,680 --> 00:21:05,400
Speaker 2: a stickly rocking chair to Harvey Kayitel. Oh wow, yes,

434
00:21:05,440 --> 00:21:07,600
Speaker 2: And being Harvey Kayel, he doesn't just breeze in and

435
00:21:07,640 --> 00:21:11,440
Speaker 2: buy a chair. No, Instead, he has twelve different stickly

436
00:21:11,560 --> 00:21:14,000
Speaker 2: rocking chairs sent to his apartment in the West Village.

437
00:21:14,040 --> 00:21:16,520
Speaker 3: And this is Kaell in like the seventies eighties, Yeah.

438
00:21:16,920 --> 00:21:19,800
Speaker 2: Ate seventies, early eighties. So Harvey Kayel then plops down

439
00:21:19,840 --> 00:21:22,399
Speaker 2: in each one and he test rides it and he

440
00:21:22,440 --> 00:21:24,520
Speaker 2: wants to clock if he likes the rhythm of the

441
00:21:24,600 --> 00:21:27,359
Speaker 2: chair's rock, and he does this in the most Harvey

442
00:21:27,400 --> 00:21:32,720
Speaker 2: Kitel way possible, all furrowed brow and like grunts of appreciation. Finally,

443
00:21:32,760 --> 00:21:35,960
Speaker 2: he finds, of the dozen sticklies, that one stickly rocking

444
00:21:36,040 --> 00:21:38,159
Speaker 2: chair that he likes the rhythm of its rock, and

445
00:21:38,160 --> 00:21:39,080
Speaker 2: he buys that one.

446
00:21:39,160 --> 00:21:39,560
Speaker 3: Wow.

447
00:21:39,760 --> 00:21:42,160
Speaker 2: Now this is kind of his key to success, Todd

448
00:21:42,160 --> 00:21:44,720
Speaker 2: Michael Volpa treats his Hollywood actor clients in the way

449
00:21:44,720 --> 00:21:48,639
Speaker 2: that they like to be indulged. Yeah, so this eventually

450
00:21:48,720 --> 00:21:50,639
Speaker 2: leads to him moving out to Hollywood so he can

451
00:21:50,680 --> 00:21:53,919
Speaker 2: be their on call art dealer. Huh yeah. Unlike New

452
00:21:54,000 --> 00:21:56,760
Speaker 2: York buyers who want like one precious o Jet day art,

453
00:21:57,000 --> 00:21:59,480
Speaker 2: the Hollywood types like say Barbari Streisand who was a

454
00:21:59,480 --> 00:22:02,919
Speaker 2: client of his, they want to curate an aesthetic. So

455
00:22:02,960 --> 00:22:05,560
Speaker 2: that means they buy art objects by the dozens, by

456
00:22:05,600 --> 00:22:06,119
Speaker 2: the score.

457
00:22:06,280 --> 00:22:07,720
Speaker 3: Right, it's a fun job.

458
00:22:07,680 --> 00:22:10,920
Speaker 2: Completely, can you imagine that? So again, they would have

459
00:22:11,119 --> 00:22:12,520
Speaker 2: like they would keep the art for like, you know,

460
00:22:12,680 --> 00:22:15,080
Speaker 2: maybe seven ten years or so, and then they want

461
00:22:15,160 --> 00:22:17,159
Speaker 2: the art faed or the trend switches up or they

462
00:22:17,200 --> 00:22:19,800
Speaker 2: get that seven year itch. Once the star goes tired

463
00:22:19,840 --> 00:22:22,120
Speaker 2: of the objects around their house. They sell them all, yeah,

464
00:22:22,160 --> 00:22:24,920
Speaker 2: and then they buy more. This is a perfect arrangement

465
00:22:24,920 --> 00:22:26,760
Speaker 2: for an art dealer like Vulple because he gets them

466
00:22:26,760 --> 00:22:30,040
Speaker 2: coming and going right. I'll buy more stuff for you,

467
00:22:30,080 --> 00:22:32,240
Speaker 2: I'll sell the old stuff. And he's getting a commission

468
00:22:32,240 --> 00:22:34,600
Speaker 2: on all of it right now. As Todd Michael Volpa

469
00:22:34,640 --> 00:22:39,040
Speaker 2: tells it, eventually, the producer of Tim Burton's Batman, Joel Silver,

470
00:22:39,480 --> 00:22:42,399
Speaker 2: Oh yeah right, he's the one who convinces him to

471
00:22:42,400 --> 00:22:45,359
Speaker 2: move out to Hollywood, not Jack Nicholson. According to Volpa,

472
00:22:45,720 --> 00:22:48,080
Speaker 2: Joel Silver and I became very close friends. He brought

473
00:22:48,119 --> 00:22:50,240
Speaker 2: me to Hollywood, introduced me to a lot of very

474
00:22:50,240 --> 00:22:53,679
Speaker 2: important people in the art world, people like Terry Semmel

475
00:22:53,960 --> 00:22:56,960
Speaker 2: and Bob Daily and Bruce Willis. And I ended up

476
00:22:57,000 --> 00:22:59,960
Speaker 2: selling art to all these people. My life was one

477
00:23:00,200 --> 00:23:03,840
Speaker 2: full the pinnacle of my life, Elizabeth. In case you're

478
00:23:03,880 --> 00:23:07,280
Speaker 2: curious or confused, Terry Semmel, Bob Daily, these may not

479
00:23:07,280 --> 00:23:10,119
Speaker 2: be familiar names, but Terry Semmeel was the president and

480
00:23:10,200 --> 00:23:13,600
Speaker 2: chief operating officer of Warner Brothers back in the eighties

481
00:23:13,680 --> 00:23:15,719
Speaker 2: and eventually in the nineties, So he's there for like,

482
00:23:15,760 --> 00:23:18,919
Speaker 2: you know, making the first Batman and saved Warner Brothers.

483
00:23:19,280 --> 00:23:21,879
Speaker 2: He becomes the chairman, a co chairman of Warner Brothers,

484
00:23:21,920 --> 00:23:25,040
Speaker 2: with Bob Daily the other co chairman. That's why he

485
00:23:25,080 --> 00:23:26,080
Speaker 2: was so excited to sell them.

486
00:23:26,119 --> 00:23:28,920
Speaker 3: And that's the thing is if you hear these like marquee.

487
00:23:28,560 --> 00:23:33,720
Speaker 4: Names of Nicholson and Bruce Wheelis, but then it's the

488
00:23:33,760 --> 00:23:37,240
Speaker 4: real money guys are the ones that you don't hear their.

489
00:23:37,200 --> 00:23:40,560
Speaker 3: Names, you're not familiar with it. They're the heads of studios, and.

490
00:23:40,880 --> 00:23:43,840
Speaker 2: They're given gifts to the people, you know, not just

491
00:23:43,840 --> 00:23:46,280
Speaker 2: for themselves. They'll buy Jack Nicholson.

492
00:23:45,920 --> 00:23:47,720
Speaker 3: A chair or whatever exactly.

493
00:23:48,040 --> 00:23:49,760
Speaker 2: So these are the say you point out, these are

494
00:23:49,800 --> 00:23:52,120
Speaker 2: sort of wealthy folks. They need an art dealer on call,

495
00:23:52,240 --> 00:23:54,919
Speaker 2: someone who knows the good stuff right and is happy

496
00:23:54,920 --> 00:23:57,280
Speaker 2: to be that for them. Now, he first helps the

497
00:23:57,320 --> 00:24:00,640
Speaker 2: producer Joel Silver decorate his newly built Man with all

498
00:24:00,800 --> 00:24:04,040
Speaker 2: expensive art right. As Joel Silver told The New York Times,

499
00:24:04,280 --> 00:24:07,240
Speaker 2: he was extremely helpful to me when I first began collecting,

500
00:24:07,560 --> 00:24:09,920
Speaker 2: and so Silver he would fly to New York visit

501
00:24:09,960 --> 00:24:12,480
Speaker 2: the Jordan Volpa Gallery and as he would later tell

502
00:24:12,520 --> 00:24:14,240
Speaker 2: The New York Times, it was like going to a

503
00:24:14,320 --> 00:24:16,880
Speaker 2: museum where everything was for sale. Most of the very

504
00:24:16,880 --> 00:24:18,880
Speaker 2: great objects went through his hands.

505
00:24:19,280 --> 00:24:22,399
Speaker 4: Now, it's so crazy how Joel Silver sounds like Hermit

506
00:24:22,560 --> 00:24:24,840
Speaker 4: front It's not weird.

507
00:24:24,920 --> 00:24:27,720
Speaker 2: Yeah, I only do Muppet voices. He also said that

508
00:24:27,800 --> 00:24:31,280
Speaker 2: Volpa had this incredible why so and then also he

509
00:24:31,359 --> 00:24:34,000
Speaker 2: quote knew where everything was and helped me put together

510
00:24:34,040 --> 00:24:39,119
Speaker 2: a wonderful collection. Now, if he asked Todd Michael Volpa

511
00:24:39,160 --> 00:24:41,520
Speaker 2: about this same period of time, as he told the

512
00:24:41,520 --> 00:24:43,959
Speaker 2: New York Times quote, if Joel said I want an

513
00:24:44,080 --> 00:24:47,160
Speaker 2: Ennis or a Benton or Barber Streisan said I want

514
00:24:47,160 --> 00:24:49,960
Speaker 2: to Perish. I love Parish. I'd go out and find

515
00:24:49,960 --> 00:24:51,640
Speaker 2: her for them. I would do these things for very

516
00:24:51,640 --> 00:24:54,479
Speaker 2: little money. If I'd see a painting for Jack for

517
00:24:54,520 --> 00:24:56,920
Speaker 2: like one hundred and seventy five thousand dollars, I'd charge

518
00:24:57,000 --> 00:24:59,320
Speaker 2: him one hundred and eighty five thousand. I wouldn't charge

519
00:24:59,359 --> 00:25:01,439
Speaker 2: him three hundred fifty thousand and put the money in

520
00:25:01,440 --> 00:25:05,919
Speaker 2: a stock portfolio. Why because I wanted their friendship. I

521
00:25:06,000 --> 00:25:08,200
Speaker 2: believe that if I was good to these people, then

522
00:25:08,240 --> 00:25:11,040
Speaker 2: they would turn around and say, Okay, now it's Todd's turn.

523
00:25:11,119 --> 00:25:12,800
Speaker 2: We're going to give him a shot.

524
00:25:13,119 --> 00:25:13,479
Speaker 3: Okay.

525
00:25:13,640 --> 00:25:14,800
Speaker 2: I don't believe a word of that.

526
00:25:14,920 --> 00:25:17,359
Speaker 4: I don't, but I do believe that Barbi Streisan would

527
00:25:17,359 --> 00:25:19,800
Speaker 4: have Maxfield perish, yes, all over her house.

528
00:25:19,920 --> 00:25:23,119
Speaker 2: Right, I thought you would like that good call. No,

529
00:25:23,240 --> 00:25:25,399
Speaker 2: those are people who get a taste of it, a

530
00:25:25,480 --> 00:25:28,040
Speaker 2: real taste of it. They often want that Hollywood life

531
00:25:28,040 --> 00:25:30,760
Speaker 2: for themselves. Sure, they begin to desire that level of

532
00:25:30,840 --> 00:25:33,600
Speaker 2: global fame and that sort of power that comes with it,

533
00:25:33,680 --> 00:25:36,119
Speaker 2: wherein they can make their dreams come true up on

534
00:25:36,160 --> 00:25:39,240
Speaker 2: the silver screen. Like we will hear our various criminals

535
00:25:39,240 --> 00:25:40,800
Speaker 2: talk about how this is just like a movie or

536
00:25:40,840 --> 00:25:43,240
Speaker 2: I learned from the movie. Yes, we all know that

537
00:25:43,359 --> 00:25:45,760
Speaker 2: if it's a movie, somehow it's bigger than life, more

538
00:25:45,800 --> 00:25:48,560
Speaker 2: important than life. It's like myths have come.

539
00:25:48,359 --> 00:25:51,160
Speaker 3: To life's shared mythology and language.

540
00:25:51,240 --> 00:25:52,879
Speaker 2: Right, and this is true even today, I mean like

541
00:25:52,960 --> 00:25:55,399
Speaker 2: with like, even though movies are dying, still someone like

542
00:25:55,480 --> 00:25:58,120
Speaker 2: Jeff Bezos, right, he's like, what, the second richest man

543
00:25:58,119 --> 00:26:00,159
Speaker 2: in the world, he still wants to be cool and

544
00:26:00,200 --> 00:26:02,840
Speaker 2: have cool famous friends on his yacht. He wants to

545
00:26:02,880 --> 00:26:05,320
Speaker 2: be a star too. Yeah, right, And it's like, bro,

546
00:26:05,720 --> 00:26:07,000
Speaker 2: you can just be Jeff Bezos.

547
00:26:07,040 --> 00:26:08,000
Speaker 3: So bad at it?

548
00:26:08,200 --> 00:26:12,399
Speaker 4: Of course, for someone who's so rich, he dresses like

549
00:26:12,520 --> 00:26:14,399
Speaker 4: such a dweeb and like he's.

550
00:26:14,240 --> 00:26:16,960
Speaker 2: Paying someone else. He doesn't have taste. The stars have tastes.

551
00:26:17,040 --> 00:26:20,480
Speaker 4: See all those things though, Like on Instagram, I'll see these,

552
00:26:20,720 --> 00:26:23,280
Speaker 4: you know, they're rather rude of like you're not you're

553
00:26:23,280 --> 00:26:25,919
Speaker 4: not ugly or just poor, and it'll show like you

554
00:26:25,960 --> 00:26:28,840
Speaker 4: know someone before their fame and you know, and.

555
00:26:28,760 --> 00:26:30,120
Speaker 3: The quote unquote glow up.

556
00:26:30,560 --> 00:26:34,600
Speaker 4: But like why like Jeff Bezos wears the worst, most

557
00:26:34,680 --> 00:26:35,760
Speaker 4: ill fitting clothes.

558
00:26:35,800 --> 00:26:38,040
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, and he looks like such a dingus.

559
00:26:38,119 --> 00:26:39,880
Speaker 2: And the way he walks down and poses and tries

560
00:26:40,119 --> 00:26:41,400
Speaker 2: he makes his clothes movies.

561
00:26:41,200 --> 00:26:43,560
Speaker 4: Because I think they all start taking that human growth harm.

562
00:26:43,800 --> 00:26:47,320
Speaker 4: This is all allegedly. Don't sue me, Jeff, but anyway,

563
00:26:47,440 --> 00:26:50,960
Speaker 4: I just he fascinates me because it's like he tries

564
00:26:51,119 --> 00:26:53,240
Speaker 4: so hard and misses the mark.

565
00:26:54,240 --> 00:26:57,760
Speaker 2: He's clearly is desperate to be like a star, like

566
00:26:57,800 --> 00:27:00,320
Speaker 2: on the level of George Clooney. You know, it's like, bro,

567
00:27:00,440 --> 00:27:01,359
Speaker 2: that's not your lane.

568
00:27:02,560 --> 00:27:05,159
Speaker 3: Wife is just as much like trying so hard and

569
00:27:05,200 --> 00:27:05,920
Speaker 3: missing the mark.

570
00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:08,240
Speaker 2: Oh yeah. She used to be like on the news

571
00:27:08,280 --> 00:27:10,240
Speaker 2: in La so like late at night, like at midnight

572
00:27:10,240 --> 00:27:12,119
Speaker 2: when I'd be watching the news. There she'd be and

573
00:27:12,119 --> 00:27:14,680
Speaker 2: I'd be like, oh, I remember Lauren Sanchez, and that's

574
00:27:14,880 --> 00:27:17,120
Speaker 2: like I thought she was like okay at her job,

575
00:27:17,160 --> 00:27:19,120
Speaker 2: but I always she was the late night person. Yeah,

576
00:27:19,200 --> 00:27:20,200
Speaker 2: that should tell you something.

577
00:27:20,280 --> 00:27:23,320
Speaker 4: She's now apparently hired law Roach as your stylist, and

578
00:27:23,640 --> 00:27:25,280
Speaker 4: she makes his work look terrible.

579
00:27:25,520 --> 00:27:27,720
Speaker 2: I bet he hates that, but he loves the payday

580
00:27:27,720 --> 00:27:32,000
Speaker 2: though I'm sure get paid law Todd Michael Volpa, he's

581
00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:34,040
Speaker 2: no different. He also gets out to Hollywood. He's like,

582
00:27:34,119 --> 00:27:36,240
Speaker 2: I want to be a star. Eventually he was like, actually,

583
00:27:36,240 --> 00:27:38,000
Speaker 2: more than that, he's like, what I really want to

584
00:27:38,000 --> 00:27:42,879
Speaker 2: do is direct stop. As Joe Silver told The New

585
00:27:42,920 --> 00:27:45,479
Speaker 2: York Times, once a house is finished and you've completed

586
00:27:45,560 --> 00:27:49,000
Speaker 2: the process, it's over. But Todd had fantasies. He really

587
00:27:49,000 --> 00:27:51,160
Speaker 2: thought he could break into the movies. He really thought

588
00:27:51,160 --> 00:27:53,960
Speaker 2: he'd win an Academy Award. In fact, he'd probably already

589
00:27:53,960 --> 00:27:55,280
Speaker 2: written his acceptance speech.

590
00:27:56,200 --> 00:27:58,000
Speaker 4: So yeah, I can see how he's got like a

591
00:27:58,080 --> 00:28:01,639
Speaker 4: direction of of how to stay and how to present

592
00:28:01,680 --> 00:28:02,240
Speaker 4: a story.

593
00:28:02,359 --> 00:28:03,919
Speaker 2: So he's like, oh, yeah, I can do this, just

594
00:28:04,000 --> 00:28:06,440
Speaker 2: moving characters around the little blocking sure.

595
00:28:06,480 --> 00:28:08,560
Speaker 3: Camera direction and sit in a director's chair.

596
00:28:08,640 --> 00:28:11,240
Speaker 2: He's like, you know, when I was prepping a body

597
00:28:11,240 --> 00:28:15,439
Speaker 2: of the morticians and Balmer, I was telling a story. Anyway,

598
00:28:15,480 --> 00:28:17,880
Speaker 2: we're getting ahead of ourselves. So back to Jack Nicholson,

599
00:28:17,920 --> 00:28:20,840
Speaker 2: our focus. It's nineteen eighty six when Todd Michael Volpa

600
00:28:21,000 --> 00:28:23,920
Speaker 2: relocates to Hollywood. He starts working as an art advisor

601
00:28:24,040 --> 00:28:27,960
Speaker 2: art dealer to Joel Silver, Barbara Streisan, later Bruce Willis,

602
00:28:28,119 --> 00:28:31,840
Speaker 2: but mainly he partners with Jack Nicholson. Now the two

603
00:28:31,880 --> 00:28:34,320
Speaker 2: men they strike this deal. Jack Nicholson gives him six

604
00:28:34,400 --> 00:28:37,520
Speaker 2: hundred and ten thousand dollars to start their business. Vulpa

605
00:28:37,560 --> 00:28:40,600
Speaker 2: is in charged with finding art, buying it, restoring it

606
00:28:40,640 --> 00:28:42,960
Speaker 2: if necessary, and then he's supposed to sell it and

607
00:28:43,000 --> 00:28:45,560
Speaker 2: the two men split the profits. It's not a fifty

608
00:28:45,600 --> 00:28:48,959
Speaker 2: to fifty split. Jack gets sixty percent, Vulpa gets forty percent.

609
00:28:49,400 --> 00:28:52,560
Speaker 2: And basically he's like Jack's the silent backer, or he's like,

610
00:28:52,640 --> 00:28:54,640
Speaker 2: you know, he's like the front man. If it was

611
00:28:54,680 --> 00:28:56,360
Speaker 2: like a weed deal. He's like, I'll front you the bag.

612
00:28:56,400 --> 00:28:58,040
Speaker 2: You go out and sell, come back in me profits.

613
00:28:58,040 --> 00:28:59,000
Speaker 2: I'll get you some more.

614
00:28:59,040 --> 00:28:59,840
Speaker 3: To put it in terms.

615
00:29:00,480 --> 00:29:03,360
Speaker 2: Yeah, so getting paid for Vulpa's eye, and it tastes

616
00:29:03,440 --> 00:29:05,520
Speaker 2: is with the deal, right. Yeah, So since Vulpa doesn't

617
00:29:05,560 --> 00:29:08,280
Speaker 2: have an art gallery in la instead, he displays the

618
00:29:08,400 --> 00:29:10,640
Speaker 2: art in his home and he has buyers come by

619
00:29:10,720 --> 00:29:11,720
Speaker 2: to check what he has on.

620
00:29:11,760 --> 00:29:13,560
Speaker 3: Offer, which I think they would probably like.

621
00:29:13,880 --> 00:29:15,560
Speaker 2: Oh my god, they loved it. Right, And this also

622
00:29:15,600 --> 00:29:17,320
Speaker 2: works super well. He's got like a house up in

623
00:29:17,360 --> 00:29:19,240
Speaker 2: the hills. They drive up, you know, and then they

624
00:29:19,240 --> 00:29:20,959
Speaker 2: got to walk in and see it, like, oh, this

625
00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:23,200
Speaker 2: is what it would look like under natural light conditions

626
00:29:23,240 --> 00:29:26,200
Speaker 2: and so forth. Now, also at this point this is

627
00:29:26,240 --> 00:29:29,640
Speaker 2: working super well, but he finds that there's this shoehorn

628
00:29:29,680 --> 00:29:32,600
Speaker 2: that almost guarantee a sale. He just starts telling people

629
00:29:32,640 --> 00:29:36,040
Speaker 2: that this was owned by Jack Nicholson. So he just

630
00:29:36,120 --> 00:29:38,680
Speaker 2: uses Jack's name to sell the art and he adds it.

631
00:29:38,880 --> 00:29:42,120
Speaker 2: He basically adds Jack to the provenance of the pieces

632
00:29:42,680 --> 00:29:46,080
Speaker 2: and is Vulpa tells it himself quote, I would always say, look,

633
00:29:46,120 --> 00:29:48,720
Speaker 2: you know this painting came out of Jack Nicholson's collection.

634
00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:50,680
Speaker 2: When I was buying and selling for Jack, I was

635
00:29:50,760 --> 00:29:54,400
Speaker 2: using our investment group. I would say Jack owned this painting.

636
00:29:54,680 --> 00:29:59,000
Speaker 2: The truth is never even hit his hands. Now, no

637
00:29:59,000 --> 00:30:00,800
Speaker 2: matter if this is all true or not. The idea

638
00:30:00,840 --> 00:30:03,320
Speaker 2: that art once belonged to Jack Nicholson obviously is enough

639
00:30:03,360 --> 00:30:06,480
Speaker 2: to sell at a high premium. People want and covet

640
00:30:06,480 --> 00:30:09,240
Speaker 2: what stars have. Oh, I can tell people, did Jack

641
00:30:09,320 --> 00:30:10,160
Speaker 2: Nicholson own to this?

642
00:30:10,320 --> 00:30:13,200
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I'm in that rarefied air now. He and

643
00:30:13,240 --> 00:30:14,840
Speaker 3: I have the same taste exactly.

644
00:30:15,120 --> 00:30:17,560
Speaker 2: He's sweated on this. You could probably swipe it for

645
00:30:17,640 --> 00:30:21,479
Speaker 2: his DNA. So anyway, their arrangement is going gangbusters. At

646
00:30:21,480 --> 00:30:23,720
Speaker 2: one point, the two men they buy an Aston Martin

647
00:30:23,800 --> 00:30:26,040
Speaker 2: and with plans to restore it, and they plan to

648
00:30:26,080 --> 00:30:28,000
Speaker 2: share it like I'll get it on Friday, you get

649
00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:28,680
Speaker 2: it on Sunday.

650
00:30:28,760 --> 00:30:35,600
Speaker 4: I see the like montage right with them riding around best.

651
00:30:38,000 --> 00:30:41,120
Speaker 2: Pull over on in the Twitch city, keep going to

652
00:30:41,160 --> 00:30:44,240
Speaker 2: the beach. So this is all obviously part of Vulpa's

653
00:30:44,240 --> 00:30:46,680
Speaker 2: attempts to look the part of a Hollywood art dealer

654
00:30:46,720 --> 00:30:48,920
Speaker 2: to the stars, because remember, he knows he needs to

655
00:30:48,960 --> 00:30:51,920
Speaker 2: present the perfect appearance to show he has all the

656
00:30:52,000 --> 00:30:55,280
Speaker 2: trappings of success. And my Van Volpa, he's living large

657
00:30:55,320 --> 00:30:57,240
Speaker 2: at this point, like no doubt about it. As he

658
00:30:57,240 --> 00:31:00,440
Speaker 2: told the New York magazine, if I wanted to Steinway piano.

659
00:31:00,520 --> 00:31:03,960
Speaker 2: They deliver it that afternoon. I'd spend one hundred thousand

660
00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:06,360
Speaker 2: dollars on just one exhibition, and he means like in

661
00:31:06,440 --> 00:31:07,000
Speaker 2: his own home.

662
00:31:07,200 --> 00:31:07,960
Speaker 3: Yeah, right.

663
00:31:08,160 --> 00:31:10,120
Speaker 2: So, in an interview with The New York Times, Volpa

664
00:31:10,240 --> 00:31:13,280
Speaker 2: he was sitting there and they describe what he's wearing.

665
00:31:13,800 --> 00:31:17,880
Speaker 2: They're at this hoity toity soho restaurant called Da Silvano Dslono.

666
00:31:17,960 --> 00:31:19,760
Speaker 2: I'm not sure it's a in the it's an art

667
00:31:19,760 --> 00:31:22,160
Speaker 2: world hangout, according to The New York Times, and as

668
00:31:22,160 --> 00:31:24,760
Speaker 2: the paper described Volpa's outfit, He's dressed in a pair

669
00:31:24,800 --> 00:31:28,560
Speaker 2: of blue jeans, a tasteful white polo shirt, a tweed jacket,

670
00:31:28,600 --> 00:31:32,480
Speaker 2: and a pair of polished alligator skinned loafers. He's just

671
00:31:32,920 --> 00:31:36,880
Speaker 2: that guy, ever, Yes, yeah, exactly. And he's explaining how

672
00:31:36,880 --> 00:31:39,800
Speaker 2: everything went so wrong for him in Hollywood to the Times. Right,

673
00:31:39,800 --> 00:31:42,600
Speaker 2: and as Vulpa tells it, every life has a story,

674
00:31:42,800 --> 00:31:45,680
Speaker 2: whether it's right or wrong, good or bad. People identify

675
00:31:45,840 --> 00:31:49,760
Speaker 2: with tragedy. I don't live a haphazard life. I had

676
00:31:49,760 --> 00:31:53,360
Speaker 2: a mission, a plan, and it wasn't to manipulate people.

677
00:31:54,080 --> 00:31:54,440
Speaker 3: Really.

678
00:31:54,600 --> 00:31:56,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is exactly what he did, though, which is

679
00:31:57,000 --> 00:31:59,040
Speaker 2: ironic and it's how he made his name in the

680
00:31:59,120 --> 00:31:59,920
Speaker 2: first place.

681
00:32:00,400 --> 00:32:02,640
Speaker 3: About how he manipulated yeah people, It's.

682
00:32:02,560 --> 00:32:04,680
Speaker 2: Also what his hero and role model, the art dealer

683
00:32:04,760 --> 00:32:07,280
Speaker 2: Joseph Devine did, right, So, I think he's being kind

684
00:32:07,320 --> 00:32:10,320
Speaker 2: to himself. What regardless, to be fair, I think when Vulpa,

685
00:32:10,640 --> 00:32:12,880
Speaker 2: what he really means is that he never expected what

686
00:32:13,080 --> 00:32:16,520
Speaker 2: would happen would happen, okay, right, and especially when everything

687
00:32:16,600 --> 00:32:19,320
Speaker 2: was going so well. He was partying with Hollywood stars,

688
00:32:19,360 --> 00:32:21,840
Speaker 2: laid into the night like it's one am barbistraize and

689
00:32:21,880 --> 00:32:24,920
Speaker 2: so we like have some food delivered. So like that's like,

690
00:32:25,000 --> 00:32:27,080
Speaker 2: you know, the lifestyle they're doing. Right, He's making a

691
00:32:27,160 --> 00:32:30,360
Speaker 2: mint selling art to producers and financiers. I mean he

692
00:32:30,440 --> 00:32:32,600
Speaker 2: lived well, he ate well, He drove nice cars, he

693
00:32:32,640 --> 00:32:36,280
Speaker 2: wore expensive clothing. He had a Japanese garden at his

694
00:32:36,320 --> 00:32:40,480
Speaker 2: place that required specialized groundskeepers. He drove obviously, that restored

695
00:32:40,480 --> 00:32:43,280
Speaker 2: Aston Martin that he co owned with Jack Nicholson, right so,

696
00:32:43,920 --> 00:32:47,000
Speaker 2: and that of course obviously requires a team of specialized mechanics.

697
00:32:47,200 --> 00:32:49,320
Speaker 2: All in all, over the course of his two decade

698
00:32:49,320 --> 00:32:51,920
Speaker 2: career as an art dealer, Vulpa estimates that he spent

699
00:32:52,000 --> 00:32:54,160
Speaker 2: twenty eight million dollars just to buy art and to

700
00:32:54,240 --> 00:32:57,200
Speaker 2: live well. Now a right, A lot of that went

701
00:32:57,240 --> 00:32:59,760
Speaker 2: to the living well. But we'll get into the numbers later.

702
00:33:00,240 --> 00:33:03,480
Speaker 2: And then Elizabeth, it all unravels. So how did it

703
00:33:03,560 --> 00:33:06,960
Speaker 2: all come undone? What was the thorn in this elephant's foot?

704
00:33:07,480 --> 00:33:08,760
Speaker 2: I was hoping you'd ask that, Elizabeth.

705
00:33:08,800 --> 00:33:10,200
Speaker 3: Great question, by the way, so good.

706
00:33:10,280 --> 00:33:13,560
Speaker 2: There was this collapse of the go go eighties art market,

707
00:33:13,800 --> 00:33:17,440
Speaker 2: right because everything was selling. It was incredible. I have

708
00:33:17,520 --> 00:33:20,880
Speaker 2: you've seen a Beetlejuice, the original. There's a whole scene

709
00:33:20,880 --> 00:33:25,000
Speaker 2: they're talking with the art dealer with a friend of Delia, right, yeah, yeah,

710
00:33:25,040 --> 00:33:27,120
Speaker 2: So that gives you a good sense of what the

711
00:33:27,200 --> 00:33:29,200
Speaker 2: art market was like. It was pretentious, it was full

712
00:33:29,240 --> 00:33:33,000
Speaker 2: of itself. It was like, oh, I like thinking, move right, right.

713
00:33:33,520 --> 00:33:36,240
Speaker 2: So if this all comes to a screeching halt when

714
00:33:36,240 --> 00:33:39,479
Speaker 2: a recession hits in America in nineteen ninety, that lasts

715
00:33:39,560 --> 00:33:42,160
Speaker 2: into nineteen ninety one, which eventually gives us you know,

716
00:33:42,240 --> 00:33:44,800
Speaker 2: it's why George hw. Bush doesn't get re elected and

717
00:33:45,000 --> 00:33:48,000
Speaker 2: Clinton is elected. This thing was like nobody saw this coming.

718
00:33:48,000 --> 00:33:50,600
Speaker 2: They're like, we just survived the Black Monday in eighty seven.

719
00:33:50,640 --> 00:33:52,160
Speaker 2: We thought everything's good, and.

720
00:33:52,400 --> 00:33:53,760
Speaker 3: They didn't want to stop believing.

721
00:33:53,960 --> 00:33:57,080
Speaker 2: No, and so the following price in the weakened demand

722
00:33:57,120 --> 00:33:59,720
Speaker 2: for art, it leads to this change in Volpa's ability

723
00:33:59,760 --> 00:34:02,480
Speaker 2: to pull his financial shenanigans that he was using to

724
00:34:02,680 --> 00:34:05,680
Speaker 2: pay for his lavish lifestyle. It really all came to

725
00:34:05,720 --> 00:34:08,920
Speaker 2: a head when these two Hollywood superproducers figured out that

726
00:34:09,000 --> 00:34:12,120
Speaker 2: Volpa had sold them fraudulent artwork and they demanded their

727
00:34:12,160 --> 00:34:15,000
Speaker 2: money back. So these super producers were Frank Marshall and

728
00:34:15,080 --> 00:34:18,000
Speaker 2: Kathleen Kennedy. Oh now Marshall who's the producer and like

729
00:34:18,000 --> 00:34:20,960
Speaker 2: Star Wars, Empire strikes Back, Kathleen Kennedy was the eventual

730
00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:24,879
Speaker 2: head of Lucasfilms. Right. They also produced Jurassic Park for Spielberg.

731
00:34:25,040 --> 00:34:30,759
Speaker 2: They also co founded Ambulance Entertainment with Spielberg superproducers. Right, So,

732
00:34:31,360 --> 00:34:34,279
Speaker 2: Vulpa learned that they liked artwork from the interbellum, that

733
00:34:34,320 --> 00:34:36,719
Speaker 2: period of time between World War One and World War Two,

734
00:34:36,840 --> 00:34:41,040
Speaker 2: specifically time completely now Volpa he goes then sells them

735
00:34:41,040 --> 00:34:44,600
Speaker 2: a Thomas hart bent In sculpture for eighty three thousand dollars,

736
00:34:44,800 --> 00:34:46,759
Speaker 2: and he tells them that the sculpture was made in

737
00:34:46,800 --> 00:34:50,080
Speaker 2: that interwar period and when in fact, the truth is

738
00:34:50,120 --> 00:34:53,560
Speaker 2: it was cast in nineteen seventy. Oh. They figure this

739
00:34:53,640 --> 00:34:56,839
Speaker 2: out because they're not dumb people. They demand their money back.

740
00:34:56,920 --> 00:34:59,160
Speaker 2: The trouble for Vulpa is he doesn't have the eighty

741
00:34:59,160 --> 00:35:01,879
Speaker 2: three grandis line around and he tells them like, oh,

742
00:35:01,920 --> 00:35:03,840
Speaker 2: and he can't raise it either. He's like, he doesn't

743
00:35:03,880 --> 00:35:06,640
Speaker 2: have assets he can sell, so instead he offers to

744
00:35:06,760 --> 00:35:09,440
Speaker 2: resell that artwork. I was like, give it back to me,

745
00:35:09,800 --> 00:35:13,239
Speaker 2: I'll resell to some other buyer, sucker, and then I'll

746
00:35:13,280 --> 00:35:16,279
Speaker 2: reimburse you the profits from that sale. But by then

747
00:35:16,360 --> 00:35:18,560
Speaker 2: it's way too late because not only did they come

748
00:35:18,600 --> 00:35:20,360
Speaker 2: to him, they'd already gone to a lawyer, and the

749
00:35:20,400 --> 00:35:22,920
Speaker 2: lawyer had done the research, and the lawyer, as they

750
00:35:22,960 --> 00:35:25,960
Speaker 2: told it, we quickly discovered that this was a giant

751
00:35:26,040 --> 00:35:29,600
Speaker 2: Ponzi scheme involving works of art. So the Ponzi scheme

752
00:35:29,840 --> 00:35:33,000
Speaker 2: is revealed for the first time. The married couple sues

753
00:35:33,080 --> 00:35:35,840
Speaker 2: him and they got money for days for a lawyer. So,

754
00:35:35,960 --> 00:35:38,680
Speaker 2: as you know, Hollywood is a small town, word starts

755
00:35:38,719 --> 00:35:41,680
Speaker 2: to spread quickly. Soon other buyers figure out they've been

756
00:35:41,719 --> 00:35:44,120
Speaker 2: conned or defraud and they demand their money back too.

757
00:35:44,160 --> 00:35:46,759
Speaker 2: And remember, the art market at this point is dead,

758
00:35:46,840 --> 00:35:50,040
Speaker 2: there's a recession going. It's nearly impossible to find new

759
00:35:50,040 --> 00:35:52,960
Speaker 2: buyers in order to reimburse all these clients that he's conned.

760
00:35:53,480 --> 00:35:57,480
Speaker 3: Well, and they're new buyers for pieces that are are fakes, right.

761
00:35:57,320 --> 00:35:59,400
Speaker 2: Well, no, there's some real stuff, Like he had this

762
00:35:59,440 --> 00:36:03,080
Speaker 2: one salvage or Dolly painting that he Dolly had painted

763
00:36:03,120 --> 00:36:06,280
Speaker 2: it for the Hitchcock movie Spellbound. It was the real painting.

764
00:36:06,280 --> 00:36:09,600
Speaker 2: It was absolutely real, and he bought it Vulpa bought

765
00:36:09,600 --> 00:36:12,200
Speaker 2: it as a as an investment, and then he sold

766
00:36:12,280 --> 00:36:14,919
Speaker 2: pieces of the investment like, oh, if you can get

767
00:36:14,960 --> 00:36:17,439
Speaker 2: one eighth of this, you give me this amount of money,

768
00:36:17,520 --> 00:36:19,440
Speaker 2: you can get one eighth and when I eventually sell it,

769
00:36:19,480 --> 00:36:22,520
Speaker 2: you'll get one eighth of the profits. He sold more

770
00:36:22,560 --> 00:36:23,880
Speaker 2: than eight portions.

771
00:36:24,280 --> 00:36:26,320
Speaker 3: Oh, I see, he's talking.

772
00:36:26,080 --> 00:36:30,000
Speaker 2: About all sorts of weird financial stuff. Sometimes he's faking stuff,

773
00:36:30,000 --> 00:36:32,520
Speaker 2: sometimes he's lying about it. Sometimes he's saying a date

774
00:36:32,600 --> 00:36:34,960
Speaker 2: is wrong. Sometimes he's just over selling it. He's doing

775
00:36:35,040 --> 00:36:37,640
Speaker 2: everything he can to con everybody halfway to the middle,

776
00:36:37,680 --> 00:36:40,160
Speaker 2: and there he is in the middle. So one dealer

777
00:36:40,160 --> 00:36:43,240
Speaker 2: in that deal lost five hundred thousand dollars on the

778
00:36:43,280 --> 00:36:45,359
Speaker 2: like how many I don't know how many eighths they had,

779
00:36:45,400 --> 00:36:47,920
Speaker 2: but that's what they lost. So this also starts to

780
00:36:47,920 --> 00:36:49,839
Speaker 2: put more pressure on Vulp. He's got more and more

781
00:36:49,840 --> 00:36:52,920
Speaker 2: clients from all sorts of deals upset at him. Meanwhile,

782
00:36:53,120 --> 00:36:56,319
Speaker 2: there's his main business partner, Jack Nicholson. And remember they

783
00:36:56,320 --> 00:36:59,040
Speaker 2: were buying art together and splitting the profits. But it

784
00:36:59,080 --> 00:37:00,920
Speaker 2: wasn't like he would drive over to Jack's house and

785
00:37:00,960 --> 00:37:03,120
Speaker 2: hand him a briefcase of cash or like a check

786
00:37:03,239 --> 00:37:05,920
Speaker 2: for his cut of the profits. Instead, they had this

787
00:37:06,000 --> 00:37:08,799
Speaker 2: investment fund. He would tell Jack what he sold, and

788
00:37:08,840 --> 00:37:11,480
Speaker 2: then he would just you know, put the profits in

789
00:37:11,560 --> 00:37:12,439
Speaker 2: the fund's.

790
00:37:12,120 --> 00:37:15,120
Speaker 3: Account and tell him it's in there now.

791
00:37:15,160 --> 00:37:17,800
Speaker 2: In order to keep up his luxurious Hollywood lifestyle, Volpa

792
00:37:17,840 --> 00:37:20,960
Speaker 2: had been skimming from that fund pretty much from the start.

793
00:37:21,120 --> 00:37:22,040
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, so.

794
00:37:22,000 --> 00:37:23,480
Speaker 2: He would tell him like, oh, remember he said, like

795
00:37:23,760 --> 00:37:25,520
Speaker 2: I would tell I buy a painting for one hundred

796
00:37:25,520 --> 00:37:26,880
Speaker 2: and seventy five, and I'd tell him, you know, one

797
00:37:26,920 --> 00:37:29,040
Speaker 2: hundred and eighty five. I wouldn't tell him three hundred

798
00:37:29,040 --> 00:37:30,759
Speaker 2: and fifty. The reason why he might have come up

799
00:37:30,800 --> 00:37:33,359
Speaker 2: with these numbers is he probably had some guilt going

800
00:37:33,400 --> 00:37:35,520
Speaker 2: and he was just telling what he actually did. Sure,

801
00:37:35,640 --> 00:37:38,120
Speaker 2: because he was lying to Jack about the numbers and

802
00:37:38,160 --> 00:37:40,000
Speaker 2: then telling him like, oh, here's your cut, here's your

803
00:37:40,040 --> 00:37:42,520
Speaker 2: sixty percent of the profits. Right, it was not an

804
00:37:42,520 --> 00:37:43,720
Speaker 2: accurate sixty percent.

805
00:37:43,920 --> 00:37:47,439
Speaker 4: Well, and because it's such such a side thing for Nicholson, Yeah,

806
00:37:47,800 --> 00:37:49,239
Speaker 4: he's not going to look focusing on it.

807
00:37:49,320 --> 00:37:50,800
Speaker 2: And also he's not going to pay attention to himself.

808
00:37:50,800 --> 00:37:52,560
Speaker 2: He's got a business manager for that. Yeah, and the

809
00:37:52,560 --> 00:37:55,680
Speaker 2: business manager doesn't how suspicious he's going to be as

810
00:37:55,680 --> 00:37:57,840
Speaker 2: long as profits keep showing up. It's just you know,

811
00:37:58,400 --> 00:37:59,960
Speaker 2: he's going to know what the numbers are for tax

812
00:38:00,120 --> 00:38:04,480
Speaker 2: right off or whatever. So basically from the start, starting

813
00:38:04,480 --> 00:38:06,840
Speaker 2: in eighty six, it's now nineteen ninety one, and this

814
00:38:06,880 --> 00:38:09,080
Speaker 2: is when he gets caught short and the recessions hit.

815
00:38:09,200 --> 00:38:12,000
Speaker 2: So to make matters worse, there's always people suing him.

816
00:38:12,080 --> 00:38:15,160
Speaker 2: Talk is starady to get around. As Vulpa recalls, I

817
00:38:15,200 --> 00:38:17,759
Speaker 2: was always putting money back into the fund. I did

818
00:38:17,760 --> 00:38:20,480
Speaker 2: that successfully for like five years. But when money got

819
00:38:20,480 --> 00:38:23,200
Speaker 2: held up in the nineteen nineties, I began trading things,

820
00:38:23,239 --> 00:38:26,319
Speaker 2: sometimes for far less, and I paid for them. When

821
00:38:26,320 --> 00:38:28,680
Speaker 2: he says trading things. Yeah, some of those things didn't

822
00:38:28,719 --> 00:38:32,200
Speaker 2: belong to him, but he sold them anyway. So people

823
00:38:32,239 --> 00:38:33,520
Speaker 2: would be like, oh, he's like, yeah, I'm gonna get

824
00:38:33,520 --> 00:38:35,440
Speaker 2: back to you on the profits. I almost have a

825
00:38:35,440 --> 00:38:38,120
Speaker 2: buyer and he's already sold it. It's gone right. Yeah,

826
00:38:38,239 --> 00:38:40,880
Speaker 2: to make up the money he skimmed from Jack Nicholson

827
00:38:40,880 --> 00:38:42,960
Speaker 2: and all the money he owed, you know, to Frank Marshall,

828
00:38:43,040 --> 00:38:46,160
Speaker 2: Kathleen Kennedy, Vulpa starts selling off art, art that doesn't

829
00:38:46,160 --> 00:38:48,359
Speaker 2: belong to him, art that belongs to other clients. Then

830
00:38:48,360 --> 00:38:50,479
Speaker 2: he tell them, you know, he's sold for far less

831
00:38:50,560 --> 00:38:51,960
Speaker 2: or you know, like I said, he's waiting for the

832
00:38:51,960 --> 00:38:53,920
Speaker 2: buyer to pay him or the buyer whatever. He's just

833
00:38:54,200 --> 00:38:56,879
Speaker 2: lying all the way. So now he's compounding his problems. Yeah,

834
00:38:56,920 --> 00:38:58,960
Speaker 2: he also sold that Aston Martin that he bought with

835
00:38:59,040 --> 00:39:02,759
Speaker 2: Jack Nicholson. Didn't tell him about that. Now, I assumed,

836
00:39:02,800 --> 00:39:04,839
Speaker 2: you know, you would assume that he would tell Jack

837
00:39:04,840 --> 00:39:07,440
Speaker 2: because they're all buddy buddy, but and also you'd assume

838
00:39:07,440 --> 00:39:09,480
Speaker 2: he would tell the buyer that it was Jack Nicholson's

839
00:39:09,520 --> 00:39:12,680
Speaker 2: to improve the provenance of the Ashston Martin. So maybe

840
00:39:12,719 --> 00:39:14,480
Speaker 2: talk will get back to Jack and he was like, hey,

841
00:39:14,480 --> 00:39:17,240
Speaker 2: I bought this from Jack. You got Jack's car. Anyway,

842
00:39:17,360 --> 00:39:19,680
Speaker 2: after he saw the car, he forgot to tell Jack

843
00:39:20,160 --> 00:39:23,440
Speaker 2: or give him his cut of the car. Finally, he

844
00:39:23,560 --> 00:39:26,920
Speaker 2: used his relationship with other art galleries to borrow money

845
00:39:26,920 --> 00:39:30,120
Speaker 2: from them for the collateral. He would use artworks that

846
00:39:30,160 --> 00:39:33,040
Speaker 2: didn't belong to him. So now he's promising people's artwork

847
00:39:33,320 --> 00:39:36,239
Speaker 2: to get money, literal cash for like fronted to him

848
00:39:36,280 --> 00:39:38,439
Speaker 2: so he can give it to people. Here's the money

849
00:39:38,480 --> 00:39:39,040
Speaker 2: I owe you.

850
00:39:39,080 --> 00:39:42,880
Speaker 3: So he's just you know, as Hannick of it all completely.

851
00:39:43,760 --> 00:39:46,960
Speaker 2: Now, Jack Nicholson's business manager, this guy Robert Colbert or

852
00:39:47,000 --> 00:39:50,120
Speaker 2: Colbert you'd hear a simple story from him if you

853
00:39:50,120 --> 00:39:52,239
Speaker 2: were to ask him, how would you describe all of this?

854
00:39:52,360 --> 00:39:54,680
Speaker 2: As he told The New York Times, what happened was

855
00:39:54,719 --> 00:39:57,719
Speaker 2: that he moved to California and got into the California lifestyle,

856
00:39:57,880 --> 00:40:00,279
Speaker 2: which was above his means. And if you rob Peter

857
00:40:00,440 --> 00:40:03,560
Speaker 2: to pay Paul, all of a sudden it fell apart on.

858
00:40:03,640 --> 00:40:06,719
Speaker 3: Him, so straight to the point, right, just laying it

859
00:40:06,760 --> 00:40:07,120
Speaker 3: down there.

860
00:40:07,160 --> 00:40:11,600
Speaker 2: Now. Meanwhile, being under pressure like he was, Volpa sought refuge.

861
00:40:11,640 --> 00:40:16,200
Speaker 2: He escaped into the forgiving arms of cocaine, Because Elizabeth,

862
00:40:16,200 --> 00:40:18,200
Speaker 2: if your life's not going well, the best thing to

863
00:40:18,239 --> 00:40:22,040
Speaker 2: do is to start doing massive cocaine. It's cheap, it'll

864
00:40:22,080 --> 00:40:22,840
Speaker 2: fix everything.

865
00:40:23,040 --> 00:40:26,360
Speaker 3: Fix it makes you a fabulous person to be hereund totally.

866
00:40:26,560 --> 00:40:28,600
Speaker 2: You know, if we're saying fix, if you mean like

867
00:40:28,640 --> 00:40:31,000
Speaker 2: it gives you all sorts of new problems, that would

868
00:40:31,040 --> 00:40:33,960
Speaker 2: be accurate, because that's what happened, as Volpa told The

869
00:40:33,960 --> 00:40:36,279
Speaker 2: New York Times. By nineteen ninety three, my cash flow

870
00:40:36,320 --> 00:40:37,800
Speaker 2: problems had become severe.

871
00:40:37,960 --> 00:40:40,640
Speaker 4: So well, yeah, he's already like lying all the stuff,

872
00:40:40,680 --> 00:40:42,600
Speaker 4: and now he's just gonna set money on fire by

873
00:40:42,600 --> 00:40:43,680
Speaker 4: doing coke all the time.

874
00:40:43,800 --> 00:40:45,080
Speaker 2: So what does he do now, Well, he could no

875
00:40:45,120 --> 00:40:47,440
Speaker 2: longer keep up appearances. He's doing a bunch of blows.

876
00:40:47,440 --> 00:40:50,759
Speaker 2: He looks erratic. Yeah, so Vulpa flees Hollywood and he

877
00:40:50,800 --> 00:40:53,240
Speaker 2: goes back to New York. Right, as he told The Times,

878
00:40:53,400 --> 00:40:55,960
Speaker 2: I didn't own anything. I didn't have a stock portfolio.

879
00:40:56,200 --> 00:40:58,759
Speaker 2: I stuck money under my mattress like my mother. I

880
00:40:58,880 --> 00:41:00,520
Speaker 2: kept a cookie jar in my head, and if I

881
00:41:00,560 --> 00:41:03,480
Speaker 2: needed something, I'd use it. Right, So this is he's

882
00:41:03,560 --> 00:41:06,359
Speaker 2: reduced now to money in the cooky judge and under

883
00:41:06,360 --> 00:41:10,080
Speaker 2: a mattress. Somehow, Volpa still manages to live luxuriously though

884
00:41:10,200 --> 00:41:11,839
Speaker 2: when he tries to get back to New York. He's

885
00:41:11,840 --> 00:41:13,680
Speaker 2: trying to hop back into the New York art world

886
00:41:13,760 --> 00:41:16,040
Speaker 2: and make the money he owes the people in La

887
00:41:16,160 --> 00:41:18,239
Speaker 2: and so he needs to keep up appearances. So he

888
00:41:18,280 --> 00:41:20,759
Speaker 2: plans to make money there by conning people. So he's

889
00:41:20,760 --> 00:41:23,399
Speaker 2: got to look like, you know, hey, everything's going well.

890
00:41:23,520 --> 00:41:26,160
Speaker 2: And also he plans to con his old friends. So

891
00:41:27,120 --> 00:41:28,719
Speaker 2: I got to pay my new friends with my old

892
00:41:28,760 --> 00:41:31,840
Speaker 2: friend's money. So for three months or so, he's residing

893
00:41:31,840 --> 00:41:34,600
Speaker 2: at the Regency Hotel, but not just in any room.

894
00:41:34,800 --> 00:41:36,560
Speaker 2: He lives in the presidential suite.

895
00:41:36,880 --> 00:41:37,359
Speaker 3: Oh my god.

896
00:41:37,480 --> 00:41:40,040
Speaker 2: In nineteen ninety three, the presidential suite rented for anywhere

897
00:41:40,080 --> 00:41:42,520
Speaker 2: between one thousand and eighteen hundred dollars a day in

898
00:41:42,600 --> 00:41:46,360
Speaker 2: ninety three, and I updated that for twenty six money.

899
00:41:46,239 --> 00:41:48,880
Speaker 2: My next question, that would be twenty two fifty to

900
00:41:48,960 --> 00:41:52,160
Speaker 2: four thou fifty dollars a day. And he was there

901
00:41:52,200 --> 00:41:53,719
Speaker 2: for three months.

902
00:41:53,960 --> 00:41:55,320
Speaker 3: Oh my god.

903
00:41:56,360 --> 00:41:59,439
Speaker 2: Now for that sort of luxury, Volpa had to con

904
00:41:59,520 --> 00:42:02,880
Speaker 2: his friends, the owners of the Regency Hotel, Steve and

905
00:42:02,920 --> 00:42:05,719
Speaker 2: Patty Tish. But he knew he could pull this off

906
00:42:05,719 --> 00:42:07,359
Speaker 2: with them because they knew him as the man at

907
00:42:07,360 --> 00:42:08,799
Speaker 2: the center of the New York arts scene. So it'd

908
00:42:08,800 --> 00:42:11,160
Speaker 2: take him a little while. And the lawsuits in Hollywood

909
00:42:11,160 --> 00:42:13,520
Speaker 2: hadn't hit the newspapers yet and hadn't made their way

910
00:42:13,560 --> 00:42:16,319
Speaker 2: back to New York yet. The communities weren't as you know,

911
00:42:16,680 --> 00:42:20,600
Speaker 2: communicative back then. Yeah, so, and you know the gossip

912
00:42:20,640 --> 00:42:24,280
Speaker 2: you knows you internet exactly so, as Volpa recalls it, quote,

913
00:42:24,360 --> 00:42:26,359
Speaker 2: I was hanging around with Steve and Patty Tish. They

914
00:42:26,360 --> 00:42:28,560
Speaker 2: own the Regency. All my clients stayed there. I did

915
00:42:28,600 --> 00:42:31,560
Speaker 2: business there, the breakfast, the power lunches. It's how you

916
00:42:31,600 --> 00:42:34,239
Speaker 2: do business, It's how you live your life. So that's

917
00:42:34,239 --> 00:42:36,440
Speaker 2: what he's doing, like, still high on cocaine, still doing

918
00:42:36,520 --> 00:42:37,720
Speaker 2: the business, power lunches.

919
00:42:38,160 --> 00:42:40,319
Speaker 3: He sounds like the worst person to be around at

920
00:42:40,320 --> 00:42:40,719
Speaker 3: this point.

921
00:42:40,800 --> 00:42:43,360
Speaker 2: Oh completely, And he's stalling, installing to pay for the

922
00:42:43,360 --> 00:42:45,680
Speaker 2: presidential suite. He's paying little bits when he can, but

923
00:42:45,760 --> 00:42:48,200
Speaker 2: mostly he's just running up a tab. Eventually the tab

924
00:42:48,280 --> 00:42:50,680
Speaker 2: is too great for anyone to ignore, and that he's

925
00:42:50,680 --> 00:42:53,319
Speaker 2: told he has to leave the Presidential Suite, and when

926
00:42:53,360 --> 00:42:56,520
Speaker 2: he does, he still owes the owners eleven thousand dollars,

927
00:42:56,560 --> 00:42:59,839
Speaker 2: and that is after they gave him a steeply discounted rate.

928
00:43:00,200 --> 00:43:04,920
Speaker 2: They're like, we'll cut it in by, like by seriously exactly. Meanwhile,

929
00:43:04,960 --> 00:43:07,439
Speaker 2: Vulpa is still trying to win or swing a big

930
00:43:07,480 --> 00:43:09,279
Speaker 2: deal to get back into Hollywood. He's like, I gotta

931
00:43:09,480 --> 00:43:11,759
Speaker 2: gotta get back to Hollywood. So he's trying to get

932
00:43:11,760 --> 00:43:14,720
Speaker 2: his client, Terry Semmel, the coach chairman, to Warner Brothers

933
00:43:14,840 --> 00:43:17,600
Speaker 2: to buy a screenplay. Idea. He had Elizabeth, you can

934
00:43:17,600 --> 00:43:19,759
Speaker 2: take the boy out of Hollywood, but you're much harder

935
00:43:19,800 --> 00:43:21,160
Speaker 2: to take the Hollywood out of the boy.

936
00:43:22,120 --> 00:43:23,319
Speaker 3: A screenplay will say this.

937
00:43:23,400 --> 00:43:25,720
Speaker 2: Oh yeah. Even back in New York, Todd Michael Volpa,

938
00:43:25,840 --> 00:43:27,920
Speaker 2: as I said, still thought his plan to get into Hollywood,

939
00:43:27,960 --> 00:43:29,800
Speaker 2: and his plan is, once again, I planned to direct.

940
00:43:29,840 --> 00:43:30,880
Speaker 2: I really like to direct.

941
00:43:30,920 --> 00:43:33,160
Speaker 3: I swear to you that's fast cash right there.

942
00:43:33,239 --> 00:43:35,840
Speaker 2: He'd optioned the life story of his hero and role model,

943
00:43:35,920 --> 00:43:37,880
Speaker 2: Joseph Duvine, and he figured, if I can get a

944
00:43:37,880 --> 00:43:40,359
Speaker 2: script in shape sell that all my money troubles will

945
00:43:40,400 --> 00:43:43,240
Speaker 2: be over. They'll all disappear. I mean, this is such cokehead.

946
00:43:43,600 --> 00:43:45,720
Speaker 3: He's just going to say, that is cocaine logic.

947
00:43:46,880 --> 00:43:49,120
Speaker 2: He remembers thinking at the time, I'm gonna sell the

948
00:43:49,160 --> 00:43:51,239
Speaker 2: Duvine story and then I'll get a writer's fee and

949
00:43:51,280 --> 00:43:53,840
Speaker 2: a producer's fee three hundred thousand, maybe four hudred thousand.

950
00:43:54,000 --> 00:43:56,920
Speaker 2: Like you can start to really hear it in between

951
00:43:56,960 --> 00:43:59,440
Speaker 2: the words. Now if you ask him, he claimed Semel

952
00:43:59,520 --> 00:44:01,160
Speaker 2: was sending a hard for him to take them to

953
00:44:01,200 --> 00:44:04,239
Speaker 2: Warner Brothers out to their jet, like their private jet,

954
00:44:04,360 --> 00:44:06,040
Speaker 2: so he could then wing his way back out to

955
00:44:06,080 --> 00:44:08,680
Speaker 2: Hollywood and talk to deals. And this is how Volpa

956
00:44:08,800 --> 00:44:11,520
Speaker 2: tells it, I'd fly to California in the Warner jet.

957
00:44:11,680 --> 00:44:12,920
Speaker 2: And you have to live in a way that you

958
00:44:12,960 --> 00:44:15,600
Speaker 2: look like you have class. I was one of them.

959
00:44:15,760 --> 00:44:18,400
Speaker 2: But if you ask a spokesperson for Terry Semmel, you

960
00:44:18,480 --> 00:44:20,600
Speaker 2: hear a different story, such as what she told the

961
00:44:20,600 --> 00:44:25,480
Speaker 2: New York Times and I quote it never happened. Meanwhile,

962
00:44:25,520 --> 00:44:27,920
Speaker 2: Vulpa is still saying, I kept thinking I'm gonna get

963
00:44:27,920 --> 00:44:30,960
Speaker 2: through this, Elizabeth. You think he got through it. No,

964
00:44:31,480 --> 00:44:34,400
Speaker 2: let's take a little break and when this after these messages,

965
00:44:34,440 --> 00:44:59,839
Speaker 2: we'll get into how badly he missed getting through this, Elizabeth.

966
00:45:00,560 --> 00:45:02,560
Speaker 2: How you digging Todd, Michael Volpe.

967
00:45:02,320 --> 00:45:04,160
Speaker 3: This guy he's just too much a.

968
00:45:04,120 --> 00:45:07,480
Speaker 2: Cocaine art dealer who's Konjack Nicholson, The Warner Brothers all

969
00:45:07,680 --> 00:45:13,879
Speaker 2: like the CEO, the chairman, Joel Silver and Barbara No. Yeah,

970
00:45:14,120 --> 00:45:17,080
Speaker 2: but at this point luck is not on my dude's side.

971
00:45:17,640 --> 00:45:20,360
Speaker 2: The option that he had on the book about Joseph

972
00:45:20,440 --> 00:45:23,120
Speaker 2: Duvine the art Dealer ye expired in the spring of

973
00:45:23,200 --> 00:45:26,640
Speaker 2: ninety four, and there when his pipe dream a screenplay

974
00:45:26,719 --> 00:45:31,120
Speaker 2: is gonna sell. So by nineteen ninety five, Todd Michael

975
00:45:31,160 --> 00:45:34,920
Speaker 2: Volpa he has to file for bankruptcy. Yeah, his stuff

976
00:45:34,960 --> 00:45:37,080
Speaker 2: is catching up to him, right, And in his bankruptcy

977
00:45:37,080 --> 00:45:39,440
Speaker 2: paperwork he decides, I'm going to write down everything I

978
00:45:39,440 --> 00:45:42,359
Speaker 2: still owe people, and he gets step to his debt

979
00:45:42,400 --> 00:45:45,839
Speaker 2: liabilities are three point five million dollars. That's what he's

980
00:45:45,840 --> 00:45:49,920
Speaker 2: trying to like write off. However, by documenting all of

981
00:45:49,960 --> 00:45:52,279
Speaker 2: his debts in his hope to have them written off,

982
00:45:52,400 --> 00:45:55,919
Speaker 2: he creates this irrefutable paper trail, or is he later

983
00:45:55,960 --> 00:45:58,960
Speaker 2: put it by putting things in writing, I murdered myself

984
00:46:00,160 --> 00:46:03,040
Speaker 2: right out. He's being metaphorical. Well, yeah, so we're good

985
00:46:03,080 --> 00:46:06,080
Speaker 2: on our ninety nine pree. This is not a one percent.

986
00:46:06,480 --> 00:46:08,200
Speaker 4: Around the time I think maybe it's a little later

987
00:46:08,239 --> 00:46:10,560
Speaker 4: that all the bankruptcy laws started to get revived.

988
00:46:10,640 --> 00:46:13,960
Speaker 2: It's under George W. Bush. He's you have to pay

989
00:46:14,000 --> 00:46:17,160
Speaker 2: thirty five hundred dollars before you can even talk about bankruptcy, right.

990
00:46:17,320 --> 00:46:20,480
Speaker 4: But it's like when you look at like that gets

991
00:46:20,480 --> 00:46:22,440
Speaker 4: plugged into so many other systems like.

992
00:46:22,680 --> 00:46:25,400
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, well also it's just you literally saying these

993
00:46:25,440 --> 00:46:27,000
Speaker 2: are all the things I owe. It becomes a legal

994
00:46:27,080 --> 00:46:29,120
Speaker 2: document and people we come along and then use it

995
00:46:29,120 --> 00:46:31,919
Speaker 2: to sue you. And there you are attesting too, Yes

996
00:46:31,960 --> 00:46:34,240
Speaker 2: I did. Oh yeah, so if.

997
00:46:34,080 --> 00:46:36,720
Speaker 3: You leave stuff off, if you leave creditors off, yeah.

998
00:46:36,760 --> 00:46:39,120
Speaker 2: Then off the schedule, then you you know better than

999
00:46:39,120 --> 00:46:39,319
Speaker 2: I do.

1000
00:46:39,480 --> 00:46:42,759
Speaker 3: You worked for I worked for a bankruptcy trustee for

1001
00:46:42,800 --> 00:46:44,279
Speaker 3: a while. It's a paralegal.

1002
00:46:44,440 --> 00:46:48,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know this intimately, I do. So just imagine

1003
00:46:48,160 --> 00:46:51,040
Speaker 2: how screwed this client would be if your boss was

1004
00:46:51,080 --> 00:46:53,279
Speaker 2: having to deal with him. And also remember he's still

1005
00:46:53,280 --> 00:46:56,040
Speaker 2: on cocaine, so there's a lot of it, just a

1006
00:46:56,160 --> 00:46:58,480
Speaker 2: really sweaty You could almost.

1007
00:46:58,239 --> 00:47:00,759
Speaker 4: See it on some of the pages as I would

1008
00:47:00,800 --> 00:47:03,440
Speaker 4: review the stuff that would come in. I think this

1009
00:47:03,560 --> 00:47:06,840
Speaker 4: does not make any sense, do you see, Like, you know,

1010
00:47:06,960 --> 00:47:09,320
Speaker 4: little details about them emerge and you can craft a

1011
00:47:09,400 --> 00:47:10,520
Speaker 4: story about the people.

1012
00:47:10,640 --> 00:47:13,919
Speaker 2: Oh man, So are you ready for justice to catch

1013
00:47:13,960 --> 00:47:16,920
Speaker 2: up to this con man and arts will he be

1014
00:47:16,920 --> 00:47:19,600
Speaker 2: able to swing that one big payday? So he so

1015
00:47:19,719 --> 00:47:21,799
Speaker 2: desperately needs to get back in the good graces of

1016
00:47:21,800 --> 00:47:24,760
Speaker 2: Hollywood and repair his relationship with Jack Nicholson and everyone

1017
00:47:24,800 --> 00:47:28,200
Speaker 2: else he conned and defrauded. Yeah, good question. Elizabeth, rather

1018
00:47:28,239 --> 00:47:30,759
Speaker 2: than me, answered that, Elizabeth, please close your eyes.

1019
00:47:30,840 --> 00:47:31,520
Speaker 3: My eyes a clue.

1020
00:47:31,520 --> 00:47:40,160
Speaker 2: I'd like you to picture it. It's six o'clock in

1021
00:47:40,200 --> 00:47:42,600
Speaker 2: the morning in New Hampshire, and all through the house

1022
00:47:42,640 --> 00:47:44,960
Speaker 2: not a creature is stirring, not even a coked out mouse,

1023
00:47:45,440 --> 00:47:48,000
Speaker 2: and you, Elizabeth, are lying down for the moment because

1024
00:47:48,040 --> 00:47:51,400
Speaker 2: you are the top half of Todd Michael Volpa's silk pajamas.

1025
00:47:51,960 --> 00:47:55,959
Speaker 2: You notice a strange sound from outside the window. Is that, yes,

1026
00:47:56,280 --> 00:47:59,200
Speaker 2: it is. It's a helicopter. You don't hear those off

1027
00:47:59,239 --> 00:48:02,480
Speaker 2: in a New Hampshire. And then you hear another distinct sound,

1028
00:48:03,000 --> 00:48:06,320
Speaker 2: a loud, hard banging at the front door. It sounds

1029
00:48:06,360 --> 00:48:09,200
Speaker 2: like cops pounding on the door, which is exactly what

1030
00:48:09,320 --> 00:48:13,200
Speaker 2: it is, only they're federal cops aka the FBI. The

1031
00:48:13,320 --> 00:48:16,719
Speaker 2: banging wakes up Todd Michael Volpa. He exclaims, what the

1032
00:48:16,800 --> 00:48:20,320
Speaker 2: ever living? His voice falls off away before he finishes

1033
00:48:20,360 --> 00:48:22,880
Speaker 2: his thought. He leaps up from his bed and tears

1034
00:48:22,880 --> 00:48:25,400
Speaker 2: back that drapes to his bedroom window, and he sees

1035
00:48:25,520 --> 00:48:28,720
Speaker 2: what you see. A squadron of local police and FBI

1036
00:48:28,800 --> 00:48:31,480
Speaker 2: guys with their jackets with their yellow letters FBI on

1037
00:48:31,520 --> 00:48:33,960
Speaker 2: the back. Some of them are even wearing bulletproof vests

1038
00:48:34,040 --> 00:48:38,080
Speaker 2: and carrying machine guns. Todd Michael Volpa exclaims, damn, we're

1039
00:48:38,080 --> 00:48:40,680
Speaker 2: in a tight spot. You don't know who he's talking to.

1040
00:48:40,760 --> 00:48:42,640
Speaker 2: It's just you and him, but you can tell he's

1041
00:48:42,719 --> 00:48:46,000
Speaker 2: terrified because you can feel his heart beating against your silk.

1042
00:48:46,400 --> 00:48:49,200
Speaker 2: He flees the bedroom and races through his house. He

1043
00:48:49,280 --> 00:48:52,439
Speaker 2: bounds down this wooden stairs and checks the front door.

1044
00:48:52,480 --> 00:48:55,120
Speaker 2: People through the fish eye, he can see a few

1045
00:48:55,320 --> 00:48:58,640
Speaker 2: FBI guys on the front step. They pound on the

1046
00:48:58,680 --> 00:49:02,680
Speaker 2: door again. The man you open up. In response, Vulpa says,

1047
00:49:03,440 --> 00:49:06,120
Speaker 2: what the hell's going on here? With a deep and

1048
00:49:06,239 --> 00:49:10,120
Speaker 2: steadying inhale, Vulpa opens the front door. You hear him

1049
00:49:10,160 --> 00:49:11,960
Speaker 2: as he asks, what do you hear?

1050
00:49:12,080 --> 00:49:12,160
Speaker 1: For?

1051
00:49:12,840 --> 00:49:15,920
Speaker 2: The FBI agent on his front porch says Todd, Volpa.

1052
00:49:16,640 --> 00:49:20,359
Speaker 2: The silk of your pajamas lifts As Volpa responds yes,

1053
00:49:21,080 --> 00:49:23,920
Speaker 2: The FBI agent says, we have a ward for your arrest.

1054
00:49:24,520 --> 00:49:28,719
Speaker 2: Vulpus sighs. It's finally happened. The Feds have come for him.

1055
00:49:28,920 --> 00:49:32,440
Speaker 2: Without any warning, the FBI agents grabbed Vulpa, yank him

1056
00:49:32,480 --> 00:49:36,000
Speaker 2: down the stairs and walked him no march him over

1057
00:49:36,080 --> 00:49:39,719
Speaker 2: to the open door of across. Now fully in their custody,

1058
00:49:40,040 --> 00:49:44,480
Speaker 2: Vulpa asks what's going on. One of the many FBI

1059
00:49:44,560 --> 00:49:48,440
Speaker 2: agents doesn't answer, and instead asks him, what do you

1060
00:49:48,600 --> 00:49:52,280
Speaker 2: know about Jack Nicholson? What do you know about Joel Silver?

1061
00:49:53,080 --> 00:49:56,400
Speaker 2: What do you know about Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy?

1062
00:49:56,560 --> 00:50:00,120
Speaker 2: You lift and fall as Volpa answers, what do you

1063
00:50:00,160 --> 00:50:03,400
Speaker 2: asking me these questions for? I don't know, The serious

1064
00:50:03,440 --> 00:50:07,319
Speaker 2: faced FBI guy says, because tomorrow morning your name is

1065
00:50:07,360 --> 00:50:10,160
Speaker 2: going to be on the cover of every magazine and

1066
00:50:10,280 --> 00:50:15,200
Speaker 2: newspaper in the country, your famous pal. Vulpa asked for what,

1067
00:50:15,920 --> 00:50:18,880
Speaker 2: and you hear the FBI agent started chuckle to himself,

1068
00:50:19,400 --> 00:50:22,400
Speaker 2: knowing that Vulpa knows the answer, and then he says,

1069
00:50:22,560 --> 00:50:27,600
Speaker 2: rather flatly, for defrauding people. So there you go, Elizabeth,

1070
00:50:27,880 --> 00:50:31,960
Speaker 2: the federal takedown of Todd Michael Vulpa. So what happened

1071
00:50:32,000 --> 00:50:34,799
Speaker 2: after that? Well, for one Vulpass to face down his

1072
00:50:34,880 --> 00:50:38,520
Speaker 2: old business partner, Jack Nicholson, Yeah, that's gonna be no fun.

1073
00:50:38,560 --> 00:50:40,960
Speaker 2: And you may be wondering, like me, what did his

1074
00:50:41,000 --> 00:50:43,840
Speaker 2: old friend and former business partner say once the ugly

1075
00:50:43,920 --> 00:50:47,399
Speaker 2: truth finally came to it. It's a great question. Way

1076
00:50:47,440 --> 00:50:50,000
Speaker 2: to be on the beam now. According to what Vulpa

1077
00:50:50,080 --> 00:50:54,840
Speaker 2: told New York Magazine, quote, Jack Nicholson said, why didn't

1078
00:50:54,840 --> 00:50:57,520
Speaker 2: you just tell me you were having financial problems? But

1079
00:50:57,600 --> 00:51:04,120
Speaker 2: I couldn't say dup, especially to someone like Jack. I

1080
00:51:04,280 --> 00:51:06,440
Speaker 2: like that. Jack's not petty about being conned, and as

1081
00:51:06,480 --> 00:51:08,520
Speaker 2: you pointed out earlier, he doesn't really care about the money.

1082
00:51:08,560 --> 00:51:11,000
Speaker 2: It's just like a kind of a fun business right. Instead,

1083
00:51:11,040 --> 00:51:12,919
Speaker 2: he's like, look, I know you meant, well, why didn't

1084
00:51:12,920 --> 00:51:13,400
Speaker 2: you come to me?

1085
00:51:13,760 --> 00:51:17,320
Speaker 3: Well, because it was he didn't mean well, no.

1086
00:51:17,160 --> 00:51:19,360
Speaker 4: I mean it was like, oh, I mismanaged things, so

1087
00:51:19,520 --> 00:51:21,359
Speaker 4: I kind of messed some stuff up. Then I think

1088
00:51:21,440 --> 00:51:25,120
Speaker 4: Nicholson would be like, you know, more forgiving or understanding

1089
00:51:25,600 --> 00:51:28,279
Speaker 4: and be wounded that you didn't come to me for help,

1090
00:51:28,520 --> 00:51:30,000
Speaker 4: but no, he was robbing you.

1091
00:51:30,200 --> 00:51:30,439
Speaker 3: Jack.

1092
00:51:30,520 --> 00:51:32,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's like one of those fish that hangs up

1093
00:51:32,160 --> 00:51:34,839
Speaker 2: by a shark's mouth. Yes, just eats whatever the shark

1094
00:51:34,920 --> 00:51:36,399
Speaker 2: doesn't get into their mouth.

1095
00:51:36,520 --> 00:51:38,120
Speaker 3: Didn't you come to me because I was too busy

1096
00:51:38,160 --> 00:51:39,200
Speaker 3: going through your bank account?

1097
00:51:39,560 --> 00:51:42,480
Speaker 2: Exactly? But I do like that Jack is basically a

1098
00:51:42,480 --> 00:51:45,880
Speaker 2: good guy about it. It doesn't care. Oh no, not

1099
00:51:45,960 --> 00:51:47,680
Speaker 2: at all. I definitely would not. But I mean, I'm

1100
00:51:47,680 --> 00:51:50,800
Speaker 2: just I'm surprised he wasn't angry. It wasn't like veiled

1101
00:51:50,840 --> 00:51:53,239
Speaker 2: threats about like, you know, I know some bad people, right,

1102
00:51:53,280 --> 00:51:55,680
Speaker 2: like I worked with Russ Meyer. I know some people

1103
00:51:55,840 --> 00:51:59,239
Speaker 2: who will collect that money. Anyway, What did the DOJ do?

1104
00:51:59,440 --> 00:52:02,040
Speaker 2: Now that to Michael Volpa's day in court had finally

1105
00:52:02,080 --> 00:52:05,880
Speaker 2: come well. Volpa was formally charged with thirty eight allegations

1106
00:52:05,880 --> 00:52:08,640
Speaker 2: of fraud and embezzlement for stealing two point five million

1107
00:52:08,640 --> 00:52:11,400
Speaker 2: dollars from his former clients. He was facing a maximum

1108
00:52:11,440 --> 00:52:14,520
Speaker 2: of twenty five years behind bars. He was forty eight

1109
00:52:14,600 --> 00:52:17,160
Speaker 2: years old at the time. Wow, basically the rest of

1110
00:52:17,160 --> 00:52:17,879
Speaker 2: his good years. Yeah.

1111
00:52:17,920 --> 00:52:18,120
Speaker 3: Yeah.

1112
00:52:18,160 --> 00:52:21,160
Speaker 2: His federal k starts in ninety seven, last through nine

1113
00:52:21,239 --> 00:52:23,840
Speaker 2: in to ninety eight, and so there he was staring

1114
00:52:23,880 --> 00:52:26,680
Speaker 2: down a penalty of one point two million dollars in

1115
00:52:26,800 --> 00:52:30,880
Speaker 2: fines on top of the restitution amount possible prison sentence

1116
00:52:30,880 --> 00:52:32,960
Speaker 2: of twenty five years. This is when the art dealer,

1117
00:52:33,120 --> 00:52:36,040
Speaker 2: self made man, decides he's going to strike a bargain

1118
00:52:36,120 --> 00:52:38,280
Speaker 2: and that would change the course of his life because

1119
00:52:38,280 --> 00:52:41,680
Speaker 2: it saved it. Volpa recalls, quote, two minutes before I

1120
00:52:41,719 --> 00:52:43,560
Speaker 2: was ready to go into a court room, they offered

1121
00:52:43,600 --> 00:52:46,040
Speaker 2: me a plea agreement, and I went for it. I

1122
00:52:46,040 --> 00:52:47,240
Speaker 2: went to jail for two years.

1123
00:52:47,440 --> 00:52:49,719
Speaker 3: Oh that sounds good to me, Yeah, from.

1124
00:52:49,400 --> 00:52:52,400
Speaker 2: Twenty five to two sure. Yeah. So he pleads guilty.

1125
00:52:52,480 --> 00:52:55,319
Speaker 2: The result of DJ they dropped thirty three counts of

1126
00:52:55,360 --> 00:52:56,080
Speaker 2: wire fraud.

1127
00:52:56,320 --> 00:52:58,680
Speaker 4: Well, and I don't think he didn't stand a chance

1128
00:52:58,719 --> 00:53:00,839
Speaker 4: at trial much against him.

1129
00:53:00,880 --> 00:53:04,279
Speaker 2: He'd done everything wrong in documented documents. And then there's

1130
00:53:04,360 --> 00:53:06,200
Speaker 2: this like hole like, hey, I'm a bankrupt here's all

1131
00:53:06,239 --> 00:53:06,560
Speaker 2: of it.

1132
00:53:06,480 --> 00:53:09,200
Speaker 3: On paper under penalty, and he gave that to.

1133
00:53:09,160 --> 00:53:11,799
Speaker 2: The federal government to do. Was this switch it from

1134
00:53:11,840 --> 00:53:15,680
Speaker 2: one department to another? Anyway? Volpa agrees to restitution at

1135
00:53:15,719 --> 00:53:18,040
Speaker 2: one point nine million to pay off his more than

1136
00:53:18,080 --> 00:53:20,680
Speaker 2: a dozen former clients who he'd turned into victims of

1137
00:53:20,719 --> 00:53:24,400
Speaker 2: his crimes. This list includes names like Jack Nicholson, Barbara Streis,

1138
00:53:24,400 --> 00:53:27,080
Speaker 2: and Frank Marshall Kathleen Kennedy. But also I found interesting

1139
00:53:27,440 --> 00:53:30,000
Speaker 2: one of the members of Kiss I looked really hard

1140
00:53:30,040 --> 00:53:33,760
Speaker 2: to find which one could not find it. I'm guessing

1141
00:53:33,800 --> 00:53:37,120
Speaker 2: it was Gene's I'm leaning Simmons. He seems like a

1142
00:53:37,120 --> 00:53:40,200
Speaker 2: pretentious sort and also a mark. Yes, so I'm just

1143
00:53:40,239 --> 00:53:42,960
Speaker 2: saying anyway. When all was said and done, Vulpa was

1144
00:53:43,000 --> 00:53:45,799
Speaker 2: sentenced to twenty eight months in federal prison. He gets

1145
00:53:45,800 --> 00:53:48,600
Speaker 2: sent to live in this very unluxurious ten by twelve

1146
00:53:48,640 --> 00:53:53,759
Speaker 2: foot cinderblock cell at a taft correctional institution down in Bakersfield, California, oh.

1147
00:53:54,160 --> 00:53:56,080
Speaker 2: Now locked up, he had plenty of time to think

1148
00:53:56,120 --> 00:53:58,400
Speaker 2: about what he had done, and he also had some

1149
00:53:58,440 --> 00:54:01,480
Speaker 2: strange moments. For instance, he told New York Magazine quote,

1150
00:54:01,560 --> 00:54:04,240
Speaker 2: I'm sitting in my cell in California and somebody rushes

1151
00:54:04,280 --> 00:54:07,520
Speaker 2: in with an envelope. It's the streisand sale at Christie's

1152
00:54:07,719 --> 00:54:10,879
Speaker 2: quote important American arts and crafts. But of course that

1153
00:54:10,920 --> 00:54:14,440
Speaker 2: movement wouldn't exist without us. And then the guard says, okay.

1154
00:54:14,520 --> 00:54:17,080
Speaker 2: Volpo Gett against the wall. I'm gonna check your locker

1155
00:54:17,120 --> 00:54:18,600
Speaker 2: for any chicken from the mess hall.

1156
00:54:19,120 --> 00:54:22,200
Speaker 4: So oh God with the high low high love on

1157
00:54:22,239 --> 00:54:25,480
Speaker 4: that one. He's got one of Christie's catalog and some

1158
00:54:25,920 --> 00:54:27,879
Speaker 4: purloined chicken exactly.

1159
00:54:28,040 --> 00:54:31,480
Speaker 2: I love that he's still doing small crimes sholding chicken

1160
00:54:31,560 --> 00:54:34,160
Speaker 2: at this point, so always in prison fulp begins the

1161
00:54:34,160 --> 00:54:36,319
Speaker 2: plan how to get back into the art world right.

1162
00:54:36,360 --> 00:54:38,239
Speaker 2: He feels like he has the perfect mark, I mean,

1163
00:54:38,360 --> 00:54:41,120
Speaker 2: client all picked out, as he told The New York Times.

1164
00:54:41,360 --> 00:54:43,799
Speaker 2: I know it sounds crazy, but I really love to

1165
00:54:43,800 --> 00:54:46,680
Speaker 2: build an art collection for Donald Trump. He's like a

1166
00:54:46,719 --> 00:54:49,120
Speaker 2: little boy with a lot of money and great vision.

1167
00:54:49,960 --> 00:54:52,000
Speaker 2: That's his mark. He is like, I got one shot

1168
00:54:52,000 --> 00:54:57,239
Speaker 2: of that guy. I can totally con him, breathing through it,

1169
00:54:57,640 --> 00:55:00,600
Speaker 2: setting his plan to con Trump aside, Elizabeth, do you

1170
00:55:00,600 --> 00:55:02,680
Speaker 2: want to guess what other plans Vulpa came up with

1171
00:55:02,840 --> 00:55:04,920
Speaker 2: inside the Old Iron Bar University?

1172
00:55:05,360 --> 00:55:06,920
Speaker 3: Is he gonna finish his screenplay?

1173
00:55:07,239 --> 00:55:09,319
Speaker 2: Oh, I'm so glad you said that. Well, for one,

1174
00:55:09,400 --> 00:55:12,959
Speaker 2: he decided forget Joseph Duvine's life story. Now his life

1175
00:55:12,960 --> 00:55:15,600
Speaker 2: story would make a great movie. So he joined the

1176
00:55:15,680 --> 00:55:19,080
Speaker 2: Ridiculous Crime Prison Book Club, and began working on his memoir.

1177
00:55:19,520 --> 00:55:21,279
Speaker 2: They hope that he could turn the book into an

1178
00:55:21,320 --> 00:55:22,680
Speaker 2: Academy Award winning movie.

1179
00:55:22,719 --> 00:55:23,719
Speaker 3: He can stuff up, but.

1180
00:55:23,719 --> 00:55:25,560
Speaker 2: That's not all. As he told the New York magazine,

1181
00:55:25,600 --> 00:55:28,400
Speaker 2: Vulpu considered starting a new gallery, or is he put it,

1182
00:55:29,000 --> 00:55:31,719
Speaker 2: I thought of showing only prison artists. My cube was

1183
00:55:31,719 --> 00:55:34,400
Speaker 2: across from a Chinese man, one of San Francisco's wealthiest

1184
00:55:34,400 --> 00:55:37,359
Speaker 2: real estate entrepreneurs. He'd sit at his window drawing, and

1185
00:55:37,400 --> 00:55:39,920
Speaker 2: I'm saying, my god, this guy is as good as

1186
00:55:39,960 --> 00:55:42,520
Speaker 2: any artist in New York. But my life in the

1187
00:55:42,600 --> 00:55:45,279
Speaker 2: art world is finished. I'm working on a film project now.

1188
00:55:45,320 --> 00:55:47,839
Speaker 2: I'd like to do what Frank Abnegail did with Catch

1189
00:55:47,840 --> 00:55:50,800
Speaker 2: Me if you can. Oh god. So yeah. When he

1190
00:55:50,800 --> 00:55:53,480
Speaker 2: gets out of prison, Vulpan his girlfriend a literary agent.

1191
00:55:53,640 --> 00:55:55,960
Speaker 2: They get to work to make his dream come true.

1192
00:55:56,000 --> 00:55:58,920
Speaker 2: Oh yes. He pens his memoir, which I told you

1193
00:55:59,040 --> 00:56:01,600
Speaker 2: is entitled Frame Right, which is a curious title since

1194
00:56:01,640 --> 00:56:03,600
Speaker 2: he was not framed at all. But it's a cute

1195
00:56:03,680 --> 00:56:06,120
Speaker 2: art pun, I guess anyway. Now, if you ask him

1196
00:56:06,120 --> 00:56:08,680
Speaker 2: about his Hollywood plans, Pulpa really wanted to work with

1197
00:56:08,719 --> 00:56:13,240
Speaker 2: Oliver Stone. He believed Oliver Stone could grasp his American story.

1198
00:56:13,360 --> 00:56:15,359
Speaker 2: Oh really has, He told The New York Times, I've

1199
00:56:15,400 --> 00:56:18,239
Speaker 2: already talked to Oliver Stone about collaborating on an art

1200
00:56:18,280 --> 00:56:20,560
Speaker 2: world movie that would become the Wall Street of the

1201
00:56:20,680 --> 00:56:23,520
Speaker 2: art world. He's interested, but he's involved in a lot

1202
00:56:23,520 --> 00:56:24,279
Speaker 2: of things right now.

1203
00:56:24,560 --> 00:56:27,200
Speaker 4: Okay, I'll tell you exactly how that went down. He

1204
00:56:27,320 --> 00:56:30,760
Speaker 4: sees Oliver Stone at a restaurant, walks up to him, Hey.

1205
00:56:30,560 --> 00:56:32,520
Speaker 3: You know a friend of this distiness, and I've got this.

1206
00:56:32,480 --> 00:56:33,960
Speaker 2: Whole project Frank Marshall about me.

1207
00:56:34,120 --> 00:56:36,120
Speaker 4: Yeah, this is you know, I want to get you

1208
00:56:36,200 --> 00:56:38,239
Speaker 4: in on the ground floor. And Oliver Stone's like, you know,

1209
00:56:38,280 --> 00:56:40,160
Speaker 4: I'm working on a lot of stuff that sounds great.

1210
00:56:40,040 --> 00:56:41,000
Speaker 2: Sounds great. I'm interested.

1211
00:56:41,160 --> 00:56:41,399
Speaker 3: Yeah.

1212
00:56:41,680 --> 00:56:44,160
Speaker 2: Now, if you asked Oliver Stone about their plans, his

1213
00:56:44,280 --> 00:56:47,880
Speaker 2: spokesman would explain, mister Stone is not interested in pursuing

1214
00:56:47,880 --> 00:56:49,400
Speaker 2: the project because he's.

1215
00:56:49,320 --> 00:56:51,440
Speaker 3: Like, I have no idea what you're talking about exactly.

1216
00:56:51,880 --> 00:56:54,439
Speaker 2: But you can't keep a good person down. You also

1217
00:56:54,480 --> 00:56:56,759
Speaker 2: can't keep a bad scheming convent down.

1218
00:56:56,840 --> 00:56:57,560
Speaker 3: Oh you cannot.

1219
00:56:57,640 --> 00:56:59,200
Speaker 2: So it didn't take him long to work his way

1220
00:56:59,239 --> 00:57:01,120
Speaker 2: back into the New York Art World Elizabeth, where he

1221
00:57:01,160 --> 00:57:03,600
Speaker 2: once again became a fixture and even won back the

1222
00:57:03,640 --> 00:57:07,440
Speaker 2: trust of buyers and sellers. By the early two thousands,

1223
00:57:07,440 --> 00:57:09,560
Speaker 2: you can see him showing his head up. He became

1224
00:57:10,200 --> 00:57:15,520
Speaker 2: involved with people such as friend of the show Montell Williams.

1225
00:57:15,840 --> 00:57:19,720
Speaker 2: This also how Volpa earned the trust of a very

1226
00:57:19,800 --> 00:57:22,200
Speaker 2: unique woman, one who wandered her way into the art

1227
00:57:22,200 --> 00:57:25,560
Speaker 2: world and had her story turned into a documentary. That

1228
00:57:25,680 --> 00:57:29,280
Speaker 2: film also featured Todd Michael Volpa because when he heard

1229
00:57:29,320 --> 00:57:33,080
Speaker 2: her story he saw dollar signs and possible newfound fame,

1230
00:57:33,280 --> 00:57:35,280
Speaker 2: so he agreed to help her, which is how he

1231
00:57:35,360 --> 00:57:38,080
Speaker 2: ended up in her documentary. So he made it back

1232
00:57:38,120 --> 00:57:40,600
Speaker 2: into movies. Elizabeth, you ever heard of the doc Who

1233
00:57:40,640 --> 00:57:44,560
Speaker 2: the Is? Jackson Pollock? No? Came out in two thousand

1234
00:57:44,600 --> 00:57:47,360
Speaker 2: and six. It's the story of Terry Horton, a retired

1235
00:57:47,400 --> 00:57:52,080
Speaker 2: truck driver turned dumpster diving granny and thrist store gold miner.

1236
00:57:52,240 --> 00:57:54,880
Speaker 2: One day hunting for treasures, she buys this painting she likes,

1237
00:57:55,000 --> 00:57:57,400
Speaker 2: and she later discovers that it may or may not

1238
00:57:57,440 --> 00:58:00,520
Speaker 2: be a painting by Jackson Pollock. The story she was

1239
00:58:00,520 --> 00:58:02,880
Speaker 2: trying to squeeze the painting into her friend's trailer and

1240
00:58:02,920 --> 00:58:04,959
Speaker 2: they found it was too large. To fit through the door.

1241
00:58:05,160 --> 00:58:07,360
Speaker 2: So they thought about turning this quote ugly painting into

1242
00:58:07,400 --> 00:58:09,920
Speaker 2: a makeshift dartboard. But then they decided, you know what,

1243
00:58:10,080 --> 00:58:11,440
Speaker 2: I'll just sell it, see how much I can get

1244
00:58:11,480 --> 00:58:13,120
Speaker 2: for it on the open market. And by open market

1245
00:58:13,160 --> 00:58:15,760
Speaker 2: I mean a garage sale. And that's when her friend

1246
00:58:15,840 --> 00:58:18,720
Speaker 2: came by an art teacher, she spied this quote ugly

1247
00:58:18,760 --> 00:58:22,280
Speaker 2: painting and informed Terry it might be a masterpiece by

1248
00:58:22,360 --> 00:58:26,640
Speaker 2: Jackson Pollock. It could be worth an estimated fifty million dollars.

1249
00:58:27,160 --> 00:58:30,080
Speaker 2: So in response, Terry Horton asked who the f is

1250
00:58:30,160 --> 00:58:33,680
Speaker 2: Jackson Pollock, which gave the dockets title. Now at this

1251
00:58:33,720 --> 00:58:36,240
Speaker 2: point she learns who Jackson Pollock is and tries to

1252
00:58:36,240 --> 00:58:39,400
Speaker 2: get her painting authenticated. Trouble was, the work had no

1253
00:58:39,560 --> 00:58:42,920
Speaker 2: clear provenance, which means the galleries, the auction houses they

1254
00:58:42,920 --> 00:58:45,600
Speaker 2: won't touch it. But by then she's hooked on the

1255
00:58:45,640 --> 00:58:48,560
Speaker 2: idea of selling it for fifty million dollars, so she

1256
00:58:48,640 --> 00:58:51,680
Speaker 2: thinks to herself she could just make up the provenance,

1257
00:58:52,200 --> 00:58:55,000
Speaker 2: which is what she did. She made up a bartender

1258
00:58:55,120 --> 00:58:59,760
Speaker 2: named Pops, who she claimed gave her the paintings totally

1259
00:59:00,880 --> 00:59:03,960
Speaker 2: way more than like Joe Biden's old Street hood friend.

1260
00:59:04,360 --> 00:59:06,640
Speaker 2: But this is just the tip of this strange iceberg

1261
00:59:06,680 --> 00:59:09,560
Speaker 2: of Liz Elizabeth, because then she goes bigger. She brings

1262
00:59:09,840 --> 00:59:12,760
Speaker 2: in Golden age Hollywood to really sell her lie. She

1263
00:59:12,880 --> 00:59:15,840
Speaker 2: claims that Jackson Pollock was a dear friend of Pop's, and,

1264
00:59:15,840 --> 00:59:19,000
Speaker 2: as Terry tells the documentary film Cameras, quote he get

1265
00:59:19,080 --> 00:59:22,040
Speaker 2: really drunk and slobbering, you know, kind of crying over

1266
00:59:22,040 --> 00:59:24,160
Speaker 2: and missing Jackson and all this stuff. And he would

1267
00:59:24,160 --> 00:59:26,360
Speaker 2: tell me these kind of risky stories, you know, and

1268
00:59:26,400 --> 00:59:29,360
Speaker 2: they were really funny, some of them were. And I thought, wow,

1269
00:59:29,520 --> 00:59:32,200
Speaker 2: I said, this is some relationship. I should have known

1270
00:59:32,240 --> 00:59:34,440
Speaker 2: who this guy was. But of course he was much

1271
00:59:34,480 --> 00:59:36,880
Speaker 2: older than I was now. According to her, back in

1272
00:59:36,880 --> 00:59:39,280
Speaker 2: the nineteen forties, when Jackson Pollock was quote down on

1273
00:59:39,320 --> 00:59:41,880
Speaker 2: his luck, he went out to La one day he

1274
00:59:41,920 --> 00:59:45,080
Speaker 2: found himself part of this all star alcoholic paint party

1275
00:59:45,080 --> 00:59:47,600
Speaker 2: in a snowstorm. More on this in a second. So

1276
00:59:47,680 --> 00:59:50,280
Speaker 2: imagine up at a mountain resort, this spot called Mount Baldy,

1277
00:59:50,320 --> 00:59:52,840
Speaker 2: which is in Socow. It's where Hollywood slubs used to

1278
00:59:52,920 --> 00:59:55,480
Speaker 2: run off to get away. There's this incredible list of

1279
00:59:55,520 --> 00:59:58,280
Speaker 2: forty Sara slabs who all get stuck together in a

1280
00:59:58,320 --> 01:00:00,960
Speaker 2: wicked snowstorm in this resort. So what do they do.

1281
01:00:01,080 --> 01:00:03,600
Speaker 2: They have a painting contest. They all paint their own paintings,

1282
01:00:03,640 --> 01:00:05,680
Speaker 2: then go who made the best one, and one of

1283
01:00:05,720 --> 01:00:08,360
Speaker 2: them is Jackson Pollocks, so nobody's gonna win but him anyway,

1284
01:00:08,560 --> 01:00:11,240
Speaker 2: As Terry tells it, it snowed big time and they

1285
01:00:11,280 --> 01:00:13,880
Speaker 2: could not get out. And Jackson always kept paints with

1286
01:00:13,960 --> 01:00:16,720
Speaker 2: him wherever he was spending time at. So since they

1287
01:00:16,760 --> 01:00:18,760
Speaker 2: couldn't get out, he'd come up with the idea that

1288
01:00:18,760 --> 01:00:21,360
Speaker 2: they should all paint a picture. Now, this list of

1289
01:00:21,400 --> 01:00:24,439
Speaker 2: stars for this painting and drinking contest, according to Terry,

1290
01:00:24,600 --> 01:00:25,520
Speaker 2: is ridiculous.

1291
01:00:25,640 --> 01:00:25,920
Speaker 3: They did.

1292
01:00:25,960 --> 01:00:28,720
Speaker 4: He have to construct a scaffolding for him to drop

1293
01:00:28,760 --> 01:00:29,240
Speaker 4: stuff like.

1294
01:00:29,640 --> 01:00:33,120
Speaker 2: Not almost not quite. Luckily they're in a bar, so

1295
01:00:33,160 --> 01:00:37,040
Speaker 2: they've got places to work. And he's like leaning his canvas.

1296
01:00:36,760 --> 01:00:38,480
Speaker 3: Up against the mirror for everybody.

1297
01:00:38,600 --> 01:00:41,040
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, and now the list of stars who were

1298
01:00:41,080 --> 01:00:45,320
Speaker 2: at this all like drinking snowed in paint party. As

1299
01:00:45,400 --> 01:00:49,240
Speaker 2: Terry tells a quote, they were all there, Cagney, Bogey, Gable,

1300
01:00:49,400 --> 01:00:53,080
Speaker 2: Davis and the Duke, all painting away. Tough guy Broderick Crawford,

1301
01:00:53,160 --> 01:00:56,720
Speaker 2: would only paint in the nude. She's just peppering in details.

1302
01:00:56,920 --> 01:00:59,720
Speaker 2: Now for those keeping score, that's James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart,

1303
01:00:59,760 --> 01:01:02,200
Speaker 2: Clark Gable, Betty Davis, John Wayne.

1304
01:01:02,280 --> 01:01:05,240
Speaker 4: Doesn't this sound like one of those AI paintings, right,

1305
01:01:05,320 --> 01:01:08,040
Speaker 4: all the celebrities welcoming somewhere to heaven.

1306
01:01:08,160 --> 01:01:11,920
Speaker 2: Yes, and there's naked Broderick Crawford and Jackson Paulck over

1307
01:01:11,960 --> 01:01:14,640
Speaker 2: her shoulder. Oh I forgot. She also said Joan Crawford

1308
01:01:14,720 --> 01:01:18,240
Speaker 2: was there, as Terry claimed Joan Crawford quote was there too.

1309
01:01:18,480 --> 01:01:21,520
Speaker 2: She was noisy and she was bothering everybody because she

1310
01:01:21,640 --> 01:01:23,520
Speaker 2: was up at the bar and trying to watch Pollock

1311
01:01:23,560 --> 01:01:25,880
Speaker 2: and he didn't want anybody watching him, so he always

1312
01:01:25,880 --> 01:01:27,440
Speaker 2: made it a point that you couldn't get rid of

1313
01:01:27,520 --> 01:01:30,600
Speaker 2: Joan Crawford. She was such a when you're trying to paint,

1314
01:01:32,320 --> 01:01:34,680
Speaker 2: and I say, I loved Joan Crawford being a paint

1315
01:01:34,680 --> 01:01:37,040
Speaker 2: in the ass. Well, Betty Davis and James Cagney and

1316
01:01:37,080 --> 01:01:39,480
Speaker 2: John Wayne are trying to paint, but Jackson Pulk's like,

1317
01:01:39,560 --> 01:01:40,680
Speaker 2: get good, way go away.

1318
01:01:40,680 --> 01:01:43,560
Speaker 3: You're doing like one of those like paint and SIPs.

1319
01:01:43,680 --> 01:01:48,840
Speaker 2: Yes, So the story goes on. She the documentary Terry says, quote,

1320
01:01:48,920 --> 01:01:50,760
Speaker 2: you know, I always thought she was a great actress,

1321
01:01:50,800 --> 01:01:53,520
Speaker 2: you know, but so what but pops up she was

1322
01:01:53,560 --> 01:01:56,200
Speaker 2: a because she just kept wanting to interfere and tell

1323
01:01:56,280 --> 01:01:58,000
Speaker 2: him how to do the painting. And he didn't want

1324
01:01:58,040 --> 01:02:00,440
Speaker 2: anybody in there watching him. So anyway, when it was

1325
01:02:00,480 --> 01:02:03,680
Speaker 2: all done, and everybody come around with their paintings and

1326
01:02:03,680 --> 01:02:06,400
Speaker 2: everything to show each other, while Jackson's painting was like

1327
01:02:06,560 --> 01:02:09,200
Speaker 2: while all all in this mirror behind the bar, and

1328
01:02:09,240 --> 01:02:10,720
Speaker 2: they were all talking about it, and all of a

1329
01:02:10,720 --> 01:02:12,960
Speaker 2: sudden he said, wait a minute, and he said I'm

1330
01:02:12,960 --> 01:02:14,840
Speaker 2: not finished yet. So then he got up on the

1331
01:02:14,880 --> 01:02:18,440
Speaker 2: bar and he signed it with his Now, the reason

1332
01:02:18,640 --> 01:02:21,200
Speaker 2: why his little Richard was brought into this story was

1333
01:02:21,200 --> 01:02:24,240
Speaker 2: to explain why this so called lost Jackson Pollock had

1334
01:02:24,280 --> 01:02:27,439
Speaker 2: no signature. And this is the story. She comes up with,

1335
01:02:27,600 --> 01:02:29,120
Speaker 2: Oh you signed it with this?

1336
01:02:29,320 --> 01:02:29,560
Speaker 3: No.

1337
01:02:30,000 --> 01:02:33,120
Speaker 2: Yes. So at this point the documentary director asked Terry good,

1338
01:02:33,200 --> 01:02:35,760
Speaker 2: where did you get this story? Where did this come from?

1339
01:02:35,960 --> 01:02:37,720
Speaker 2: And she just omits it. Where'd it come from? I

1340
01:02:37,760 --> 01:02:38,320
Speaker 2: made it up?

1341
01:02:38,880 --> 01:02:40,360
Speaker 3: So unbelievable.

1342
01:02:40,840 --> 01:02:42,800
Speaker 2: Now we's skip ahead so we can get Todd Michael

1343
01:02:42,840 --> 01:02:45,040
Speaker 2: Volpa's involved in in the story Please. So one day,

1344
01:02:45,120 --> 01:02:48,280
Speaker 2: Terry's in a bookstore, she finds his book framed. She

1345
01:02:48,360 --> 01:02:51,480
Speaker 2: reads up on him. She decides this former fraudster is

1346
01:02:51,520 --> 01:02:54,680
Speaker 2: the perfect person the partner with and helped me sell.

1347
01:02:54,720 --> 01:02:57,360
Speaker 2: This could be would be pollock to the auction houses

1348
01:02:57,640 --> 01:02:59,760
Speaker 2: and get this vulpas of course down to help her,

1349
01:02:59,760 --> 01:03:02,640
Speaker 2: which she approaches me. He's like, oh, of course. He

1350
01:03:02,800 --> 01:03:05,280
Speaker 2: senses this would create a big splash in the art world.

1351
01:03:05,400 --> 01:03:08,200
Speaker 2: It would reassert him as an art world star and

1352
01:03:08,320 --> 01:03:11,800
Speaker 2: possibly a big, big payday along the way. It's like win, win, win, gat.

1353
01:03:12,040 --> 01:03:15,240
Speaker 2: So what happens? He tells Terry the painting it won't

1354
01:03:15,240 --> 01:03:17,680
Speaker 2: fetch fifty million dollars. Get that number out of your head.

1355
01:03:17,800 --> 01:03:20,280
Speaker 2: He tells her he could sell for nine million, So

1356
01:03:21,120 --> 01:03:23,200
Speaker 2: that's good enough for her. Now they're onto it. So

1357
01:03:23,280 --> 01:03:25,560
Speaker 2: he also gives her this education on the nature of

1358
01:03:25,560 --> 01:03:28,160
Speaker 2: the art world and how perception works to create value,

1359
01:03:28,440 --> 01:03:31,720
Speaker 2: something obviously he knows uniquely. Well yeah, so Volpa explains

1360
01:03:31,760 --> 01:03:33,960
Speaker 2: to the documentary film cameras how he gives her his

1361
01:03:34,120 --> 01:03:37,000
Speaker 2: education and I quote, I only saw the art world

1362
01:03:37,040 --> 01:03:39,080
Speaker 2: as a kind of through the looking glass experience kind

1363
01:03:39,080 --> 01:03:42,400
Speaker 2: of like Alice in Wonderland. A lot of illusions, costumes, disguises,

1364
01:03:42,440 --> 01:03:45,480
Speaker 2: people who are masquerading. There's a lot of smoking mirrors.

1365
01:03:45,480 --> 01:03:48,480
Speaker 2: In the art world, money is no object. It's big business,

1366
01:03:48,480 --> 01:03:52,880
Speaker 2: creating opportunities for hedge fund managers, high leveraging of art deals.

1367
01:03:53,000 --> 01:03:56,880
Speaker 2: It's all about money, it's about power. It's also about greed.

1368
01:03:57,200 --> 01:04:00,000
Speaker 2: You have to be very clever, very skillful, have enormous

1369
01:04:00,200 --> 01:04:03,880
Speaker 2: understanding of financing art history business. The art world is

1370
01:04:03,920 --> 01:04:06,280
Speaker 2: not what it was twenty years ago. It's a doggy

1371
01:04:06,440 --> 01:04:09,680
Speaker 2: dog shark tank business where we would have seen Terry

1372
01:04:09,680 --> 01:04:13,920
Speaker 2: Horton as a peasant. So that's his assessment. Now he's

1373
01:04:13,960 --> 01:04:16,160
Speaker 2: willing to give her this education. He tries to help

1374
01:04:16,200 --> 01:04:18,160
Speaker 2: her sell the fake Jackson Paulk to some of the

1375
01:04:18,280 --> 01:04:21,400
Speaker 2: usual suspects, some marks he thinks might go for it.

1376
01:04:21,840 --> 01:04:24,120
Speaker 2: As he tells the cameras, we offered the painting to

1377
01:04:24,200 --> 01:04:27,840
Speaker 2: Steve Winn, Bill Gates, David Geffen, lots of different people,

1378
01:04:27,840 --> 01:04:29,680
Speaker 2: and the answer is always the same, until you get

1379
01:04:29,720 --> 01:04:32,240
Speaker 2: authenticity on the picture, until you get the art world

1380
01:04:32,280 --> 01:04:34,520
Speaker 2: to say it's okay, we're not interested.

1381
01:04:34,680 --> 01:04:35,080
Speaker 3: Yeah.

1382
01:04:35,160 --> 01:04:39,160
Speaker 2: Now, if you're wondering, Terry Horton never did sell that painting. Yeah,

1383
01:04:39,560 --> 01:04:42,400
Speaker 2: but it did give Todd Michael Volpa one more spin

1384
01:04:42,480 --> 01:04:46,800
Speaker 2: in the limelight those documentary. It did Jack Nicholson watch

1385
01:04:46,800 --> 01:04:49,720
Speaker 2: the documentary and did he give him a dark, dark laugh?

1386
01:04:49,960 --> 01:04:54,400
Speaker 2: I wonder, Hollywood, So, Elizabeth, what's our ridiculous takeaway here?

1387
01:04:54,600 --> 01:04:58,200
Speaker 3: I love art crime. It's always it's always so good

1388
01:04:58,280 --> 01:05:00,040
Speaker 3: and rich, rich.

1389
01:05:00,120 --> 01:05:03,880
Speaker 4: Inzany and just what people think they can get away with,

1390
01:05:04,320 --> 01:05:07,320
Speaker 4: you know, I mean, honestly, how did Todd think this

1391
01:05:07,400 --> 01:05:08,280
Speaker 4: was going to play out?

1392
01:05:08,640 --> 01:05:09,640
Speaker 3: He can't do it forever?

1393
01:05:09,960 --> 01:05:10,920
Speaker 2: Yes, totally? You know.

1394
01:05:11,000 --> 01:05:13,840
Speaker 4: Did he have a notion of why I can get

1395
01:05:13,880 --> 01:05:16,960
Speaker 4: caught up here and then do it right way?

1396
01:05:16,880 --> 01:05:19,320
Speaker 2: Yeah? You know, I'll go up to Montreal live some

1397
01:05:19,440 --> 01:05:21,760
Speaker 2: days off of just tolen money? Do they head extradition

1398
01:05:21,800 --> 01:05:24,560
Speaker 2: from Canada? I mean? Also, the one name I kept

1399
01:05:24,600 --> 01:05:26,600
Speaker 2: expecting to show up in this story but it never

1400
01:05:26,640 --> 01:05:29,440
Speaker 2: did for me was Sylvester Stolone, because you know, he

1401
01:05:29,520 --> 01:05:32,560
Speaker 2: fancies himself a painter. Yeah, he does paintings. I mean

1402
01:05:32,560 --> 01:05:34,800
Speaker 2: I shouldn't say he fancies himself. He really does do

1403
01:05:34,920 --> 01:05:37,400
Speaker 2: paintings and he sells them, so he technically is. But

1404
01:05:37,480 --> 01:05:40,640
Speaker 2: he never showed up it is and that, and I'm

1405
01:05:40,680 --> 01:05:43,440
Speaker 2: going to have to now find a crime involves Sylvester

1406
01:05:43,560 --> 01:05:47,120
Speaker 2: Sloan just so I can do his accent. Tell you

1407
01:05:47,200 --> 01:05:48,960
Speaker 2: in the mood for a talk back, maybe we wash

1408
01:05:49,000 --> 01:05:59,680
Speaker 2: this all down please? Oh my god.

1409
01:05:59,360 --> 01:06:06,480
Speaker 6: I hi, Dame, This is Skuy from Melbourne, Australia. I

1410
01:06:06,520 --> 01:06:08,640
Speaker 6: just wanted to let you know that most of us

1411
01:06:08,680 --> 01:06:11,280
Speaker 6: don't know how to say our names of our towns

1412
01:06:11,320 --> 01:06:14,600
Speaker 6: or cities either, and depending on which state you come from,

1413
01:06:14,800 --> 01:06:20,440
Speaker 6: it's highly contested. Also fun fact, apparently Mighty Ducks was

1414
01:06:20,480 --> 01:06:24,080
Speaker 6: released as champions here in Australia. I'm not sure I

1415
01:06:24,160 --> 01:06:28,520
Speaker 6: was aware of that, but apparently some people had it.

1416
01:06:28,640 --> 01:06:32,280
Speaker 2: Anyway, have a good one by Wow.

1417
01:06:33,880 --> 01:06:37,760
Speaker 4: Can I say this is why I love Australians.

1418
01:06:37,880 --> 01:06:39,720
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's like, oh, you don't. We none of us

1419
01:06:39,720 --> 01:06:41,840
Speaker 3: know how to say it. Who cares? We all know

1420
01:06:41,880 --> 01:06:43,560
Speaker 3: it's the place, you know what we mean.

1421
01:06:43,640 --> 01:06:45,320
Speaker 2: And also we know that people with different accents are

1422
01:06:45,320 --> 01:06:46,720
Speaker 2: going to pronounce it differently, So it's like what do

1423
01:06:46,720 --> 01:06:50,200
Speaker 2: you can get hung up because something doesn't.

1424
01:06:48,120 --> 01:06:50,360
Speaker 3: Say I love Australians.

1425
01:06:50,440 --> 01:06:52,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm a big fan of those down Under.

1426
01:06:52,320 --> 01:06:54,600
Speaker 3: Yes, I didn't really know a lot about Australians.

1427
01:06:54,640 --> 01:06:57,960
Speaker 4: Until we started doing this podcast, they've been like, I mean,

1428
01:06:57,960 --> 01:07:00,760
Speaker 4: I knew a couple of people, but like every single

1429
01:07:00,840 --> 01:07:05,760
Speaker 4: person who reaches out is a funny, be smart see Chill.

1430
01:07:06,720 --> 01:07:09,120
Speaker 2: I love Australians. I mean obviously the ones that love

1431
01:07:09,200 --> 01:07:11,400
Speaker 2: me back. There's something down there. Not big fans of

1432
01:07:11,800 --> 01:07:14,000
Speaker 2: but they're not me personally, but people who look like me,

1433
01:07:14,120 --> 01:07:17,800
Speaker 2: but whatever, So setting aside them, I love Australia. Yes,

1434
01:07:17,880 --> 01:07:18,920
Speaker 2: just generally speaking.

1435
01:07:19,160 --> 01:07:21,439
Speaker 3: Someday I'll be able to get on a flight that long.

1436
01:07:21,840 --> 01:07:23,480
Speaker 2: Yeah, good luck, I can do that.

1437
01:07:23,960 --> 01:07:25,080
Speaker 3: But yeah, so.

1438
01:07:25,120 --> 01:07:27,560
Speaker 2: Thank you for that. That's awesome. Also, I need to

1439
01:07:27,360 --> 01:07:31,000
Speaker 2: give a personal thanks to one of our listeners, Rose

1440
01:07:31,560 --> 01:07:34,280
Speaker 2: aka the Envious Moon on Instagram. I want to thank

1441
01:07:34,320 --> 01:07:37,400
Speaker 2: you so much. The pennies arrived, the twenty twenty six pennies.

1442
01:07:37,480 --> 01:07:40,160
Speaker 2: I am so delighted. Twenty twenty five pennies. I'm so delighted.

1443
01:07:40,520 --> 01:07:42,720
Speaker 2: It meant the world to me. So thank you so much.

1444
01:07:42,760 --> 01:07:46,040
Speaker 2: The final pennies ever to be created. Now I've got mold.

1445
01:07:46,120 --> 01:07:47,640
Speaker 2: Not just one. You didn't just send me one, you

1446
01:07:47,640 --> 01:07:50,520
Speaker 2: sent me multiple that that was really really it not

1447
01:07:50,560 --> 01:07:52,520
Speaker 2: only made my day, it made my week, possibly made

1448
01:07:52,520 --> 01:07:54,600
Speaker 2: my month, and not just the short one, but like

1449
01:07:54,680 --> 01:07:57,480
Speaker 2: all of January, so that too. But thank you so much.

1450
01:07:57,520 --> 01:08:00,640
Speaker 2: That was really really thoughtful and really kind and it

1451
01:08:00,760 --> 01:08:04,000
Speaker 2: touched me. So thank you. And there you go. That's

1452
01:08:04,000 --> 01:08:06,480
Speaker 2: all I've got for you. So you can find us

1453
01:08:06,520 --> 01:08:09,320
Speaker 2: online at Ridiculous Crime on social medium, we have a

1454
01:08:09,560 --> 01:08:13,080
Speaker 2: Ridiculous Crime pod on YouTube, go check it out. And

1455
01:08:13,120 --> 01:08:16,360
Speaker 2: we have our website ridiculous Crime dot com. There's merch

1456
01:08:16,560 --> 01:08:20,160
Speaker 2: and there is all sorts of gifts for your viewing pleasure,

1457
01:08:20,200 --> 01:08:22,559
Speaker 2: so go check out ridiculous Crime dot com. Obviously, we

1458
01:08:22,600 --> 01:08:24,280
Speaker 2: love your talk back, so please go to the iHeart

1459
01:08:24,320 --> 01:08:27,360
Speaker 2: app download it leave a talkback. We'd love to hear

1460
01:08:27,439 --> 01:08:30,080
Speaker 2: your voice here. Also, you can email us if you like,

1461
01:08:30,120 --> 01:08:33,559
Speaker 2: at ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com. If you do

1462
01:08:33,640 --> 01:08:35,679
Speaker 2: email us, remember to start with the email dear producer

1463
01:08:35,760 --> 01:08:38,360
Speaker 2: d as always, thank you for listening and we will

1464
01:08:38,400 --> 01:08:47,200
Speaker 2: catch you next crime. Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth

1465
01:08:47,240 --> 01:08:50,960
Speaker 2: Dutton and Zarren Burnette, produced and edited by Jack Nicholson's

1466
01:08:50,960 --> 01:08:55,000
Speaker 2: Aston Martin Mechanic Dave Houston, and starring Analys Rutger. It's

1467
01:08:55,080 --> 01:08:58,679
Speaker 2: Judy research is by Harvey Kayitel's plug for Rocking Chairs

1468
01:08:58,760 --> 01:09:01,880
Speaker 2: Marissa Brown and Jabbari Davis. Our theme song is by

1469
01:09:01,880 --> 01:09:04,920
Speaker 2: our house band, Tom Cruise and the you Can't Handle

1470
01:09:04,960 --> 01:09:08,280
Speaker 2: This Truth Rhythm and Blues Band aka Thomas Lee and

1471
01:09:08,320 --> 01:09:11,840
Speaker 2: Travis Dutton. The host wardrobe provided by Buddy five hundred,

1472
01:09:11,880 --> 01:09:15,880
Speaker 2: I Guess Tara, makeup by Sparkleshot and Mister Andre. Executive

1473
01:09:15,880 --> 01:09:20,599
Speaker 2: producers are Oliver Stone, spokesman Ben Bowlen and dol Brown.

1474
01:09:27,600 --> 01:09:31,600
Speaker 6: Cry Say It One More Time, Cry.

1475
01:09:32,439 --> 01:09:35,799
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio four more podcasts.

1476
01:09:35,920 --> 01:09:39,080
Speaker 1: My heart Radio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

1477
01:09:39,120 --> 01:09:40,879
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows