Kahlo's drawing burned for NFT causes national outrage

Recently, a businessman named Martin Mobarak burned Frida Kahlo’s art taken from her personal diary to create NFTs. This action caused massive outrage, now he is under investigation in Mexico.

Frida Kahlo's artwork is a national treasure of Mexico. Her artwork featured self-portraits, drawings, and other works showcasing Mexican artifacts, worth thousands of dollars $.

Mobarak bought a drawing from her personal diary and in a special ceremony in July, he placed the artwork on top of a blue martini glass with burning alcohol and set it aflame.

According to Mobarak, this burning of Kahlo’s drawing “transformed to live eternally in the digital realm” that portrays the “rebirth & immortality of a timeless piece” in the form of NFTs.

His company, Frida. NFT created 10,000 NFTs from the piece out of which only 4 have been sold on the marketplace.  The digital collectible was priced at $11,500 instead of the prior set price of $10M.

This event immediately caught the attention of the art community. For artists and non- NFT art collectors, this was a big historical loss in Mexican history, causing much outrage.

However, a lot of people speculate that the rare artwork might not be original because it was sold to an unknown collector. For collectors, it might be a fraud at the expense of investing in digital assets.

If the artwork is original, Mobarak will face serious legal action from the government. “The deliberate destruction of an artistic monument constitutes a crime in terms of the federal law..”

When asked whether he regrets burning the artwork, Mobarak hesitated a bit and then said, “I like to say that I don’t regret it.”

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