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- [00:00]
Brian Green
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- [02:41]
Von Miller
On this episode of the commercial break.
- [02:44]
Brian Green
We'Re too dumb to know. We're too dumb to care. We don't care because you know. Pattycake11707 just put out another reel that I like about kitty cats or my favorite streamer's getting arrested for, you know, a little pot in his pocket. I mean, it's unbelievable. Well, listen, it's, you know, I don't have the answers. I wish I had the answers. I don't have the answers. Chrissy has the answers but she won't tell me. Jeff's been giving her the secrets. Jeff's in the 1%.
- [03:18]
Von Miller
The next episode of the commercial Break starts now.
- [03:26]
Brian Green
Oh, yeah. Cats and kittens, welcome back to the commercial. Commercial break. I'm Brian Green. This is my dear friend and the co host of this show, Chris and Joy Hoadley. Best to you, Chris.
- [03:34]
Chrissy Hoadley
Best to you, Brian.
- [03:35]
Brian Green
Best to you. Out there in the podcast universe, I had just me. I wanted to bring you into the group too, on the camera.
- [03:40]
Chrissy Hoadley
I know, I saw.
- [03:41]
Brian Green
Yeah. I don't like you, so I'm taking you out. Goodbye, Chrissy. Hi, Chrissy. I'm back. There you are. Hi.
- [03:48]
Chrissy Hoadley
Hi.
- [03:49]
Brian Green
I have been fascinated by this Louvre thievery that happened. The Louvre, if you don't mind, the battleground of good and evil. When Tom Hanks did. Remember when Tom Hanks did that movie? And it all ended at the Louvre?
- [04:04]
Chrissy Hoadley
Yeah. That was the treasure or what was that? Dan Brown.
- [04:09]
Brian Green
Yeah, The Dan Brown novels.
- [04:10]
Chrissy Hoadley
Yes.
- [04:11]
Brian Green
The God.
- [04:12]
Chrissy Hoadley
The Da Vinci Code.
- [04:13]
Brian Green
Da Vinci Code, yes. I wanted to say the Darjeeling Limited Adventures, which is a title that I completely made up. All cloth. That's fun. But this Louvre thievery is very interesting. Happened. I mean, you had to have been sleeping under a rock not to hear about this, but it happened in broad daylight back in October.
- [04:32]
Chrissy Hoadley
So bold.
- [04:33]
Brian Green
Very bold. And they broke into what they understood to be one of the lesser secure areas of the Louvre. The Louvre is two city blocks. It's not like one building.
- [04:46]
Chrissy Hoadley
We were talking about that. Yeah, you enlightened me on that because I didn't realize how huge it was.
- [04:51]
Brian Green
It's gigantic. I mean, you can go look on Google Earth or Google Maps and you can see just how big it is. The courtyard in and of itself is, you know, the size of a small city park. It really is.
- [05:02]
Chrissy Hoadley
Well, it's a former palace.
- [05:03]
Brian Green
Right, It's a former palace, but then it's been like glommed onto. When you enter the Louvre, you enter through the pyramid. You go down an escalator, very long escalator, and you go into a central lobby that in and of itself is very large. And then you pick which small section of one of the five wings of the building you're going to visit in the next 24 hours. Because it's impossible to see even, even 5% of it in a day. It is so incredibly large. There is so many things to see there, so much art. The Egyptian wing, of course, is probably one of the more popular ones. That's where I spent a good majority of my time. You can see the Mona Lisa there. There is so much art. Billions of dollars. Maybe even like, I don't know, maybe it's priceless. Maybe the amount of art is priceless. It rivals the Vatican, though. I imagine the Vatican has a lot more art that's much more valuable. I've been there too. That's incredible also. That's also large. It's the smallest country in the world, but in. In and of itself, the Vatican is crazy. The amount of wealth that's just dripping off of that place is insane.
- [06:11]
Chrissy Hoadley
I know.
- [06:12]
Brian Green
And then you think about the immense power that the Pope and the Catholic Church have had on this earth for so many years, and you start to feel. You start to feel like you're in a Dan Brown novel. You're like, holy shit, this is not a conspiracy theory. This is real.
- [06:28]
Chrissy Hoadley
That's pretty crazy. I remember the part two that I enjoyed because I'd been twice, once with my sister and then the last time when Jeff and.
- [06:34]
Brian Green
To the Lou.
- [06:35]
Chrissy Hoadley
No, to the Vatican.
- [06:35]
Brian Green
To the Vatican.
- [06:36]
Chrissy Hoadley
And then the part two that I really remember was like going down under and seeing those tombs. They've got the tombs of the, like old popes down there.
- [06:43]
Brian Green
They have some real, live dead. Real live dead popes. Yeah. I've been to Spain where they. In churches, they have one of the saints. There's like a famous church north of Madrid in the, like the north countryside where they have. Every town has a church. The church, of course, the cathedral style church. You know, this probably older than anything in the United States. Beautiful stained glass. Everything original or, you know, updated, retouched, whatever it is. They take care of them, the Catholic Church, the church in general takes care of them preciously because that's their real estate. And often it's very valuable because it is the town, it's the center of town, it's the focus of the town. They get millions of visitors at some of these churches every year, like in Barcelona and Madrid and all. All throughout the countryside in Spain. But one of these church. And so every time I go to Spain and we end up visiting some the next town, you know, the next village, the next whatever. And I've been all around Spain. It is a point is made by the family that we have to go to the cathedral, you have to go to the church. That's what you do. Because itself is a history lesson in and of itself. It is a living, breathing testament to human achievement, human corruption, human distrust. I mean, it's just history in general. And we went into one. And if you've ever been to one of these older cathedrals, you'll see that in its left in its kind of original state. You'll see. And I think Notre Dame is like this, too. You'll see that they have the pews where people will sit, but then the bishops will sit in essentially a box in the middle of the church that's closed off, really, to the rest of the church. And they have these huge, like. I don't know. I don't even know. I don't describe them. Wood seats, that box off the rest. Well, so we're walking around this, and I knew this is a famous church. I. I didn't under. I very rarely do. I understand why when I walk in there. I'm not a historian, but we walk into one of these churches, there's hundreds of people that are there. We're taking. We're kind of walking around the perimeter of the church. And then you walk down these stairs next to this box, these very old stone stairs. And you walk down, and there is a glass piece of, like, long glass, like. Like a transom. And you look in that transom, and no, shit. One of the saints, a saint, is entombed. And if I'm not mistaken, it's one of the apostles, I believe, is entombed in this fucking church. Now the question is, is that really. Is that really his old bones? Like, roller old bones on down here? I don't know if those are really the old bones or they're sitting in the Vatican somewhere and they've put something else there to pretend that it is because it's so valuable. You know, this wasn't like a heavily guarded church. They had security, of course. But then we've also been to the church in Valencia where Last cup of Christ is supposedly. And, you know, that was. That was a weird experience. Also, the Lou is another one of these priceless, invaluable testaments to human art, human achievement, and quite frankly, the riches that are amassed on behalf of some people. The Lou. These guys take a cherry picker in the middle of the day, right as the. I'm not in the middle of the day right as the Louvre is opening. They take a cherry picker. They ride that cherry picker to a glass window, they jump in, they steal some extraordinarily valuable jewels, crowns.
- [10:11]
Chrissy Hoadley
Yeah, Napoleon, right? It was all related to Napoleon.
- [10:15]
Brian Green
You might be right about that. That might be the Napoleon wing of the building, so to speak, or the Napoleon hall, whatever you call it. And so they take all of this stuff. They're in, they're out. Seven minutes. Let me give you a little synopsis. October 19th. Four thieves carried out a Bold daylight raid in the museum's Gallery de Apollon, which is the houses of the French crown jewel jewels. They arrived at 9:30am they used a truck with a lifting platform, what we know as a cherry picker, parked it outside, raised a few floors into a balcony, broke a window. Two perpetrators used power tools to break through the glass window. They smashed the display cases inside, grabbed eight pieces of historically significant jewelry, Tiara's necklaces and earrings. They once belonged to French royalty. Queen Marie Amelie, Queen Hortensen. One of those stolen items was a crown worn by Empress Eugene that was later recovered outside the museum. But it was damaged and the thieves fled on scooter and exited via the scene side of the facade onto the motor, onto the motorway. Within four minutes they were in and out. Within eight minutes they were on the highway.
- [11:29]
Chrissy Hoadley
Audacity and the fact that they got away with it, they actually were able to do it.
- [11:33]
Brian Green
They did it. Well, two of them were arrested recently on the 19th of October. So like a month ago they were arrested trying to get out of the country at Charles de Gaulle. So they, they didn't get arrested. And then the third one was arrested. So there's a fourth one that's out there. But you know, the French police. The first of all, you have to understand something about Paris. If you've never been there and I've driven into Paris from outside Paris to inside Paris, like I've driven to Paris. When you go to Paris, doesn't matter how you get into Paris, you're being videotaped, your pictures being taken, it's being taken by cameras on the roadways in multiple different places. Paris is high security. Like they're, they are really a police state at the end of the day. And I don't mean that. I'm trying not to mean that in a bad way. Right. But it does feel a little creepy when you realize when there's flash when you're driving down the highway and then there's multiple flashes in multiple different places, and you realize they're not taking a picture of your license plate like a lot of places do now, they're taking a picture of you and the people inside of the car. And I imagine there's facial recognition software that's then identifying whether or not you mean them some harm or you're wanted. So just trying to get out of the city for these guys. I imagine what is was going to be a tall task without being recognized. But the moment that I heard about this, it made me think about the international gang of loosely affiliated Thieves known as the Pink Panthers. If you don't know, the Pink Panther, not only named after. Appropriately named after the comedy movies the Pink Panther, which at one point stars Steve Martin movies. Yeah. Was it Jean Clouseau? Was Jean Clouseau the Pink Panther?
- [13:15]
Chrissy Hoadley
Jacques.
- [13:16]
Brian Green
Jacques Clouseau? No, not Jacques Cousteau. Jean Clouseau. That's Jacques Cousteau. Jacques Cousteau. He's in movies, too. And his pet turtle. Yeah. He's known as the Pink Panther. The pink beluga whale. They are known as the Pink Panthers, and for the last couple of decades, they have been wreaking havoc in the most friendly of ways across Europe. Mainly across Europe, yes. Now, what do we know about the Pink Panthers? Let me explain a little bit about the Pink Panthers. It's a group of very slick jewel thieves, essentially, is what they are. They target places by doing a lot of homework and looking like people who are meant to be there. High fashion. High fashion, well dressed, well educated. They look like they fit the scene wherever they are. And that's usually some high. High street somewhere. And they've done. You know, it's been in Paris. High Street. That's what they call it. Look at me. I'm one step closer to becoming a UK citizen.
- [14:28]
Chrissy Hoadley
Fancy, is that?
- [14:30]
Brian Green
Yeah, fancy. Yeah, fancy. Classy, like. Yeah, it's a high street. Is the fancy street, right? The place where you go and you know what it is? It's Rodeo Drive, essentially. In whatever town this has been in Paris and in the UK and all throughout Eastern and Western Europe, they have done this. They pick a jewelry store where they think they can get away with a lot of jewels in a short amount of time. And they use manners and fear rather than bullets and violence. That's what they're known for. They walk in, they get in, they get out. In usually less than a minute or two, they steal millions and millions of dollars worth of jewels. And they do it with the precision of a military operation or like a Secret Service, CIA operation. They're named the Pink Panthers because they. Because of the movies, but then also because it's kind of comical that they have.
- [15:20]
Chrissy Hoadley
That they're able to do it, that.
- [15:21]
Brian Green
They'Re able to do it, get away with it so quickly. And very rarely has anybody been hurt. I think one person has been killed in the entire time they have been doing this. And who are these people? Well, a lot of people believe that they are former Serbian military operators that got together and they are loosely associated. Right. But all the money filters up to whomever it filters up to probably some kind of organized crime. But then there's multiple people involved. Maybe they, you know, a couple of them do a couple heists over a couple years and then the next group takes over or they switch and they intermingle. This is real Ocean's Eleven.
- [15:57]
Chrissy Hoadley
Yeah, I was going to say that reminds me of Ocean's Eleven.
- [16:00]
Brian Green
And they have not been caught. None of them have been caught. They have never been caught, which is unbelievable. International network of jewel thieves, probably from the Balkans, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Croatia, who have pulled off hundreds of robberies in since the early 2000s. They were coined by Interpol in after a 2003 London heist where a stolen diamond was hidden in a jar of face cream. Just like the movie. Have you ever seen the movie with Peter Sellers? That's what happens. He sticks the big whatever, the crown jewel inside of face cream. It's estimated that they have hauled in over $500 million worth of jewels. They're stylish, they're fast, and they're surgical, just as I described. They favor daylight raids, precision timing, and a movie level getaway tactics, often in under two minutes. No violence, just speed coordination using pure, you know, tactics. That's it. That's what they do. Sometimes they drive cars into buildings and then, you know, they'll smash, grab, and then they'll have getaway cars and they're all. Yeah. And then they, they'll. They've been known to move from one getaway car to the next getaway car to the third getaway car. And by the time the police even get, get to the scene, they're four getaway cars into it and they're never going to be caught because they're just that good.
- [17:23]
Chrissy Hoadley
So former military would make sense.
- [17:26]
Brian Green
Yes. Okay, you want to hear about a few of their heists?
- [17:28]
Chrissy Hoadley
I do.
- [17:29]
Brian Green
All right, 2001. This is kind of when the birth of this legend starts. They stole a diamond worth over $500,000 from a Mayfair jeweler. Police found it hidden in a pot of face cream. Interpol then coins them the Pink Panthers. So then in a pair of nearly identical daylight robberies in Paris, they stole over $10 million worth of diamonds in under two minutes. In under two minutes. They used wigs, they had makeup, they had no firing of any gun. They walked in, they smashed, they grabbed, they got out, and they were calm. And that's what I've watched some video on, like people who are investigating these guys, like 60 Minutes and 60 Minutes Australia and some other investigative journalists in the BBC. Every one of the People at Interpol or the different agencies that investigating them all comment. There's almost like a certain amount of respect for these guys.
- [18:28]
Chrissy Hoadley
Yeah, I can see.
- [18:29]
Brian Green
Because they're calm and professional. They're not screaming and yelling like, you know, you see in the United States, these guys, they go in the smash and they grab and they cause chaos and, and they usually get caught because they're being dumb about it. Right? Not these dudes. These dudes take this. This is like a job. They're going to work. They know what they're going to do, they're going to do it and they're going to do it quickly and then they're going to move on and get away. And I, you know, I don't have respect for the jewel thievery part of it, but it's kind of cool. I mean, it's kind of fucking cool, right?
- [18:55]
Chrissy Hoadley
Yeah, like a movie. I mean, you're picturing George Clooney at this point.
- [19:00]
Brian Green
That's right. In 2005, in Geneva, Switzerland, they pulled off an $8 million robbery near Lake Geneva. Never been to Switzerland. I've been to Geneva. They have a huge lake called Lake Geneva. Sits right in Geneva. It's convenient. Lake Geneva is conveniently located in Geneva. Picture perfect scenery, just as you would imagine.
- [19:20]
Chrissy Hoadley
Pictures are beautiful.
- [19:22]
Brian Green
The mountains behind it, crystal clear water. I mean it's really weird for a lake. It's, you know, blue water and then you can take a boat ride on it. But if you drive, if you take a boat ride around Lake Geneva, around the city of Geneva, this outskirts of Geneva, the amount of wealth that is sitting up in those mountains, that is sitting in that city is disgusting and classy. It's like if you have old money, this is what you do with old money. You go to Lake Geneva and then you just kind of chill out. Right. But there are diamond shop after diamond shop after jeweler after jeweler.
- [19:56]
Chrissy Hoadley
Right? It's like an Aspen.
- [19:58]
Brian Green
Oh Yeah, Aspen, but 600 years older.
- [20:01]
Chrissy Hoadley
Sure.
- [20:02]
Brian Green
It's. They've been there for a minute. They know what they're doing. In Dubai. Two Audi sedans smash through the glass in the doors of the Wafi Mall. Four mass men loot the Graff jewelry store. Less than 88 seconds. They make out with $20 million in jewels. That's insane. Saint. Saint. I can't say that. San Tropez, France, robbers dressed as tourists stroll in and take $6 million worth of jewels. They flee on speedboats because. Yeah, why not? Let's just throw boats in the mix. Yeah. Milan Italy, another graph store. $7 million. They use smoke bombs to disorient the security, but they were non toxic, so no one got hurt. Cannes, France Cannes, France $136 million. As they steal a suitcase full of gems from the behind the counter of a jewelry store, they knew what they were going in to do. 2014 through 18, there are dozens of copycats or connected robberies and then there's sporadic Germany, Switzerland and Balkans. These guys have never been caught. And it fascinates the fuck out of me. Of course, first of all, how do they, here's my question. What do they do with the jewel? They must. Obviously they have a network of people that they must sell these to. And when you sell $136 million worth of retail value diamonds, you're not getting $136 million back. They're stolen. You have to get rid of them. Diamonds these days have barcodes just like every other thing on earth. They can be tracked and traced.
- [21:55]
Chrissy Hoadley
Do they?
- [21:55]
Brian Green
Yes. My brother just bought his engagement ring and the guy showed him the inner, like the idc, the international diamond charge or whatever it was.
- [22:06]
Chrissy Hoadley
Okay.
- [22:06]
Brian Green
He put a magnifying glass, like a super magnifying glass down to the bottom of the diamond. He had it in that little, you know, the little forceps or whatever. And he showed the barcode essentially for the diamond. It was traced, it can be tracked and insured. And so if someone else steals it and puts it in another ring, if you were ever to find the ring that somebody had, you would be able to track and trace that particular diamond to where it was sold. How? The chain of custody. And the guy was telling us at the diamond store, he's like, this is how all of this is done now.
- [22:38]
Chrissy Hoadley
Yeah. Well, it makes sense.
- [22:39]
Brian Green
When a guy comes in with a bag full of jewel. Bag full of diamonds. When my guy comes in with a bag full of diamonds, you know, I imagine, for some reason, I imagine a Hasidic Jew come. And I don't mean that. It's just what I imagine when I think of those New York jewelers, you know.
- [22:52]
Chrissy Hoadley
Yeah.
- [22:52]
Brian Green
Coming in with the bag of diamonds. Yeah. And then just like rolling them out on a table and you're looking at them, you exchange the diamonds and then you write down the serial numbers and you, you know, car, whatever you do, I don't know what the fuck you do.
- [23:03]
Chrissy Hoadley
You do something, you write down the serial numbers.
- [23:07]
Brian Green
But when you're stealing these kind of jewels, they're either probably raw diamonds or old enough to not carry this kind.
- [23:14]
Chrissy Hoadley
I Love that.
- [23:14]
Brian Green
Yeah. But the fact that these Pink Panthers know what they're stealing. They know what they're stealing.
- [23:20]
Chrissy Hoadley
They know exactly what they're doing.
- [23:21]
Brian Green
Yeah. This is not a random smasher grab. This is not a couple of, you know, fucking 26 year olds who think they're going to be the next. You know. I don't know. The guys from the town. Was that Ben. Ben Affleck movie, the Town? When they're shooting up the.
- [23:37]
Chrissy Hoadley
I don't think I saw the Town.
- [23:38]
Brian Green
You didn't see the town or Ben Affleck? They have that big shootout at the end at where the Fenway.
- [23:44]
Chrissy Hoadley
Okay.
- [23:44]
Brian Green
Where they. They rob Fenway after one of the games because all the cash is downstairs. Oh, it's a great movie, fantastic movie. But this is not that. This is not like, you know, a bunch of. And those guys were professionals, too, but they got caught. Just in case you haven't seen the movie yet, I'll ruin it for you. They get caught.
- [24:04]
Chrissy Hoadley
Is it a true story?
- [24:05]
Brian Green
It's not a true story, no. I wish it was a true story, but it's not gonna be a lot cooler if it was. It'd be a lot cooler if it was, but this is a true story. Where do these diamonds go? How did they get there? When people do international art heists, which is another thing that happens all around the world, all the fucking time, where do they go? Who gets them? Like, if you steal a Monet or a Rembrandt or the Mona Lisa, whatever. If you. Which, by the way, you know, the only reason why the Mona Lisa is really famous is because it's been stolen a number of times and it's made international news. So that's why the Mona Lisa became this famous painting, is because it was traded hands between thieves and original owners. And it just kind of like got this allure. This. The allure of a painting. I mean, when you go see the Mona Lisa. I'm gonna be honest with you. I'm gonna be honest. It's not super impressive. It's just not impressive. Unpopular opinion. The Mona Lisa, to me, was not impressive. I did not. I didn't feel some kind of like, autistic overwhelm about the Mona Lisa, the most valuable painting in the world. I was just. It looked like more like a postage stamp. It was really small. It was really small. It's kind of puny. And it was like, okay, all right. That's the Mona Lisa. There you go. And people are.
- [25:31]
Chrissy Hoadley
Oh, well, yeah.
- [25:32]
Brian Green
They're clamoring to get a Picture with it next to it. You can't actually stand next to it. But. But where does this stuff go?
- [25:39]
Chrissy Hoadley
There's. Well, there's. I think there's a whole black market then for it. Because I was reading about a painting heist and another book, and. Yeah, there's like a whole underground black market.
- [25:50]
Brian Green
Like, there's people who want that. They'll put it in their house, they'll hang it in their house, and they don't give a fuck. They're kind of pissing in the wind of the high market, the high art market.
- [25:59]
Chrissy Hoadley
Right. Like Russian oligarchs, that kind of thing. I mean, it's. Yeah, Mafia, whatever. It's the people of the underworld.
- [26:07]
Brian Green
The art in the collectible market, like, and the jewel market is out of sane. It's an insanely corrupt and crazy thing when you scratch the surface. I think most of us think about art and we're like, yeah, in a museum or a nice painting in someone's home, or this person collects art or that person collects art. When you really start scratching the surface about art and jewelry, it's insanely connected to everything terrible in this world. Insanely connected.
- [26:37]
Chrissy Hoadley
I'm not saying all of money laundering goes on through it.
- [26:40]
Brian Green
Of course it does. Of course it does. These paintings keep capturing more and more money. Art right now is on fire.
- [26:47]
Chrissy Hoadley
And they have those big, huge containers right at different points in the ports in the U.S. yep. At ports.
- [26:53]
Brian Green
At ports, yeah. You. You've seen the movie? What's the movie? Not Inception, but the other one I got. Damn it. Now I love it. It's a great movie. The one where they're all moving backwards. Do you know what I'm talking about?
- [27:07]
Chrissy Hoadley
Memento.
- [27:07]
Brian Green
No, not Memento. The one. Hold on one second. The movie after Inception. Excuse me.
- [27:19]
Chrissy Hoadley
No, I love that director, though.
- [27:21]
Brian Green
Oh, God damn, dude. Why? This is like my favorite. My favorite director. Inception. My favorite director, Nolan. Nolan, Christopher Tenant Tenant. Okay, so in the movie Tenant, they are in this facility at an international airport. You know, the one where they drive the plane through. Where Christopher. Where Christopher Nolan actually drove a plane through an actual building to get that effect. That is a port in that. Like this. Like a safe house essentially, for fine art, jewels, and anything else that's extremely valuable that is free from taxation because it doesn't officially enter the country. It's like, there's no man's land. Yeah. And these are becoming very popular for people to put their jewels. And when they talk about all the security, like, if someone breaks in, then carbon monoxide fills the room and you'll be dead or passed out in 12 seconds. These kind of security measures are in place. And it's real. It's fucking real that this happens. And these are becoming more and more popular. They're proliferating throughout. But I cannot talk today. Thank you. You know, you have those days when you wake up and your brain's moving, but your mouth's not. It's one of those days. But, of course, I do this for a living, so I'm bound to have one of these every once in two episodes. I'm bound to have one of these every Tuesday. So these things are all around the world, world. And they are safe houses for some of the most crazy, expensive shit ever.
- [28:50]
Chrissy Hoadley
And some people don't even. I mean, what I've read is that some people, like, you know, buy it at auction or whatever and then just.
- [28:57]
Brian Green
Ship it to one of those places.
- [28:59]
Chrissy Hoadley
That's it. Never. It never sees the light of day.
- [29:01]
Brian Green
Never sees the light of day. It's taken care of by a bunch of nameless, faceless people.
- [29:06]
Chrissy Hoadley
Money.
- [29:06]
Brian Green
It's just for money. It's just a way to exchange value. And that's. When you think about it, that's what money is. Money is the exchange of energy. And sometimes you put that energy into a thing, and then you can exchange that energy later on down the road. It's a safe house. And the way that the art market has exploded lately, it's absolutely insane. I want to talk about it a little bit more. Let's take a break because, yeah, I love this. I don't know, when we go streaming, all of a sudden we go like, we have, like, 40 minute segments.
- [29:32]
Chrissy Hoadley
I know.
- [29:32]
Brian Green
We did.
- [29:33]
Chrissy Hoadley
We do.
- [29:33]
Brian Green
We were so good at sticking to, like, 15 to 20 minute segments, and now we're doing three hour episodes. I became Joe Rogan after I went on Twitch on streaming with no one watching. Oh, two. Hey. Hey. Good to see you. We'll be back.
- [29:54]
Rachel
Hey, it's Rachel, your new voice of God here on tcb. And just like you, I'm wondering just how much longer this podcast can continue. Let's all rejoice that another episode has made it to your ears. And I'll rejoice that my check is in the mail. Speaking of mail, get your free TCB sticker in the mail by going to tcbpodcast.com and visiting the Contact Us page. You can also find the entire commercial break library audio and video, just in case you want to look at chrissy@tcbpodcast.com Want your voice to be on an episode of the show. Leave us a message at 212-4333, TCB. That's 212-433-3822. Tell us how much you love us and we'll be sure to let the world know on a future episode. Or you could make fun of us. That'd be fine too. We might not air that, but maybe. Oh, and if you're shy, that's okay. Just send a text. We'll respond. Now I'm gonna go check the mailbox for payment while you check out our sponsors and then we'll return to this episode of the Commercial break.
- [30:51]
Brian Green
This episode is sponsored by our longtime sponsor, Squarespace. I am working on a new project Information tbd. It's very secretive. It's very hush hush around here because, you know, podcast secrets are a thing. Anywho, there is only one all in one website tool that's designed to help my new project stand out and be successful. And that one tool is Squarespace. Squarespace can help me through every step of the process. The launch, the scaling, the branding, and the growth. No matter what part of the journey I am on. Squarespace is an all in one website platform, so it'll cater to my needs every step of the way. There are so many benefits, services and tools built into Squarespace, I would need a 10 minute commercial to name them all. Cutting edge design, search engine optimization tools, domain management, analytics, email campaigns, the ability to host videos, and most importantly, the ability to get paid. So if you've been thinking about building or upgrading your website, now's the time to head to squarespace.com commercial for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, make sure to use the offer code commercial to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or a domain. That's squarespace.com commercial. Then be sure to use the code commercial when you're ready to launch. Squarespace has been with the commercial break for a long time and we have been with Squarespace for even longer. This is a company we trust. It's a product we use. And there's one overarching reason why it makes my life easier. Go build yourself a beautiful website squarespace.com commercial and thank you to Squarespace for being a sponsor of the commercial break.
- [32:31]
Von Miller
This is Free Range with Von Miller, the podcast where I step outside the lines and I take you with me. Each week we're talking everything from the biggest stories around the league to the biggest stories off the field. This isn't Your average sports podcast. This is game meets culture, locker room meets living room. And no topic is off limits. So if you're into good conversations that ruffle a few feathers, join me every Wednesday and follow Free Range with Vaughn Miller everywhere you get your podcast.
- [33:01]
Brian Green
This episode is sponsored in part by Rula. You know, there was a time when I really needed therapy, but I could not find a therapist who took my insurance. I can remember feeling so stuck, like I had to choose between getting help and staying on budget. That's why I think what Rula is doing is so very important. Rula makes therapy accessible and affordable by partnering with over 100 insurance plans. The average copay is around $15 per session, and depending on your benefits, it could even be less. They also take the time to find the right therapist for you. Someone who understands your goals, your preferences, and your background. There's no waiting weeks or months for an appointment. You can start as soon as tomorrow. And Rula stays with you along the way, checking in, supporting your progress and helping you feel seen and cared for. Thousands of people are already using Rula to get affordable, high quality therapy that's actually covered by Insurance. Visit rula.com commercial to get started and after you sign up, you'll be asked how you heard about them. Please support the commercial break and let them know we sent you. That's R U L A dot com commercial. You deserve mental health care that works with you, not against your budget. Okay. They're called free ports is what they're called freeports. I'm sorry, I forgot the name, but I looked it up in the port.
- [34:17]
Chrissy Hoadley
You had port, right?
- [34:18]
Brian Green
What's that? I did, yeah. And so there's a couple of them. They're Geneva, Delaware, Thailand, Bangkok. There's a number of these and basically what they are is they are stuffed in ports or international airports where essentially they are their own no man's land. They can't be taxed by any particular country because they never touch any particular country technically. So these freeports have been around. The Geneva one has been around since the late 70s, early 80s. And according to my research, ChatGPT, some of these, some of this art has been there since its inception. No pun, pun intended. It's been there the whole time. This is a place where the ultra rich, ultra, ultra rich store cash. Essentially store valuables is not necessarily liquid, but it's, it's cash. And the art market over the last 15, 20 years has gotten absolutely bonkers.
- [35:10]
Chrissy Hoadley
Exploded.
- [35:11]
Brian Green
Yeah, with guys from Saudi Arabia, uae, Dubai, the Middle east, you know, Billionaires, China, there's like a new billionaire every day arising in this universe, in this world that we're living in. And so there are hundreds, if not thousands, maybe tens of thousands of billionaires throughout the world. And they're all looking to put their cash somewhere safer than cash. Because you know, that's what you do when you have like indispensable amounts of wealth. You have to spread that wealth out. You don't want to be a one legged table, as we say here at the commercial break. You don't want to be a one legged table. So they spread their wealth out and they put their valuables at these free ports where it can't be touched. It's very unlikely to be broken into because it's some of the most secure facilities in the world. You go in, you mean nefarious harm, you're dead. That's how it works. And by the way, since it's not a country, if you're dead, you're likely, it's unlikely it'll be investigated by anybody of reputation.
- [36:08]
Chrissy Hoadley
Think about that.
- [36:10]
Brian Green
It's like being in international waters, right? That's how it happens. And so these free parts are, freeports are becoming very popular with the ultra rich. And so you'll, you'll buy a Rembrandt for $100 million, but you'll never see it. You would never dare put that in your house where someone can just come in and take it. You know, your house is probably the least secure place that you'll ever be if you're a billionaire. And this just fascinates me to no end because this is how you won't.
- [36:37]
Chrissy Hoadley
Even get to enjoy it though. Listen, I guess you just say you own it.
- [36:42]
Brian Green
I like art and I don't have a billion dollars, so I will never know. It will never be in my purview to use a freeport.
- [36:49]
Chrissy Hoadley
Right, right.
- [36:50]
Brian Green
I mean, I can only hope. I can only imagine, I can only imagine what it's like to have a freeport or do a freeport thing or even contact a freeport for that matter. We should call a freeport. Is there a freeport? And I should ask them.
- [37:03]
Chrissy Hoadley
I think there's one in New York.
- [37:05]
Brian Green
No, just Delaware. Oh, Delaware, yeah, Delaware.
- [37:08]
Chrissy Hoadley
I should ask to start their companies.
- [37:10]
Brian Green
Would you keep my Dick Tracy collection secure?
- [37:16]
Chrissy Hoadley
How much would it cost?
- [37:17]
Brian Green
Hold on one second.
- [37:18]
Chrissy Hoadley
I am curious as do you have.
- [37:19]
Brian Green
The phone number to the Delaware Freeport question mark?
- [37:23]
Chrissy Hoadley
I am curious as to how much it costs to store something in the Freeport. And I mean, would you I mean they're different I guess. There's different sizes. It's kind of like a storage unit place. Right, but for. Yeah, that's like ultra wealthy.
- [37:39]
Brian Green
Yeah. Hold on one second. Tell me about the security measures at these free ports. So I did find a phone number for the Delaware Freeport. Should I call them?
- [37:52]
Chrissy Hoadley
I think we should.
- [37:53]
Brian Green
And ask them what is the charge for keeping my Dick Tracy collection.
- [37:58]
Chrissy Hoadley
Yes, what's the going.
- [37:59]
Brian Green
Right, yes. 24 hour CCTV. Of course. Right. Hundreds of cameras covering every angle. Access control by biometric entry only. That's iris scan, fingerprint and possibly multi factor.
- [38:13]
Chrissy Hoadley
That's wild. That's like in the movies too where you see people like cut off somebody's hand, you know, to use it.
- [38:18]
Brian Green
To use it. Yeah, that's right. Take out your eyeballs. Yeah. We're in Terminator. Now to take out your eyeball and scan it. It Climate control environment because of temperature and humidity. Fire suppression systems, strict inventory and tracking, sound vibration sensors, motion sensors, triggle trig irregularity sensors. Limited access for any non owner. If a non owner wants to view or interact with an item, they have to be escorted under scheduled supervision and have to go through thorough reviews and security checks. Fences, walls, barbed wire, secure loading docks, controlled parking, lasers. Yeah, and by the way, that's just the stuff that's publicly available.
- [38:59]
Chrissy Hoadley
Yeah.
- [38:59]
Brian Green
You know that they have the most advanced security systems in the world. It's probably like White House level security, I would imagine. I wonder if it includes a gold sign that says Freeport hand painted by a two year old.
- [39:13]
Chrissy Hoadley
Right, right. That you get off the Etsy Freeport.
- [39:15]
Brian Green
That's right. I mean, listen, let me ask you. How does a free port charge for housing an item? Question mark. We're all learning together.
- [39:28]
Chrissy Hoadley
I would be curious.
- [39:31]
Brian Green
Okay. And then I want to tell you about Selma Hayek. Oh, and how she fits into all of this.
- [39:36]
Chrissy Hoadley
I like her. Well, she's got a. She's got an ultra wealthy husband.
- [39:42]
Brian Green
Yes. So Geneva is expensive but discreet. Singapore is Bond is Bond villain like facility that is known to be the most expensive.
- [39:58]
Chrissy Hoadley
Well, Singapore is like one of the most expensive cities in the world.
- [40:01]
Brian Green
Yes, of course they will charge you from ev. For everything from receiving an item to photographing it, cataloging it, moving it, opening it, resealing it and. And sometimes even for just looking at it.
- [40:14]
Chrissy Hoadley
Really?
- [40:14]
Brian Green
And they will charge you by the square footage foot to house something. And they're not giving a. Doesn't. It's not going to give us dollar amounts, right? Oh wait, no. Here it does give you dollar amounts.
- [40:24]
Chrissy Hoadley
If you have to ask, you can't afford it.
- [40:26]
Brian Green
5 to $10,000 per foot per year.
- [40:31]
Chrissy Hoadley
Whoa.
- [40:32]
Brian Green
Okay, so now let's think about that. Let's think about. You get a ten by ten piece of art and then you have to take that 10 by 10 piece of art and you have to create it and you have to weather control it and all that other stuff, right? So maybe you're taking up 100 square feet, right, vertically. But maybe you're taking up 100 square feet. I'm sure that's how they charge 100 square feet times $5,000. That's $7,000 per year. According to my math, that's 500 grand a year.
- [41:03]
Chrissy Hoadley
I know.
- [41:03]
Brian Green
A year. A year to house your Rembrandt. Holy. But I guess when you spend $100 million on it, what does it matter? It does.
- [41:10]
Chrissy Hoadley
Yeah. Now that's pennies.
- [41:11]
Brian Green
You're going to spend it. You won't even spend 1% of that for two years worth of housing. I mean, and it probably raises in value 4 or 5% every year. Well, yeah, so I gotta imagine it's worth it. These freeports are fascinating. I love it. Where is the tour of the Freeport? I bet you don't have that on YouTube. Where go Mr. Beast. Get on it. Where are the fuck are you on?
- [41:33]
Chrissy Hoadley
They're not letting you in.
- [41:34]
Brian Green
Yeah, Mr. Beast can afford a freeport. Where is that? Freeport? Seriously, that's just insane to me that you charge that much. And then on top of that, that's just the charge for housing it. That's not the charge for doing anything special with it. Like if you to rotate it or whatever every year they'll probably charge you $30,000. Because anytime they handle it they are at liability. And the insurance they must carry in those places is probably. Actually maybe they don't even. Maybe they're. There's some corrupt insurance company that does that. Insurance? What is that? AIG or whatever that huge insurance. Someone out there? Prudential someone out there?
- [42:12]
Chrissy Hoadley
Well, I don't know. I mean I guess, but. But also you as the individual who owns the art, have it insured.
- [42:20]
Brian Green
Oh yeah, there's. You have double secret insurance on stuff like that. And who do you call for shit like that? I guess you call like a network of people.
- [42:28]
Chrissy Hoadley
Only the ultra.
- [42:29]
Brian Green
Well, what's that company in the UK that'll like ensure your voice or your hands or your.
- [42:34]
Chrissy Hoadley
Oh, Lloyd's of London.
- [42:36]
Brian Green
Of London. You know, I talked to an insurance agent one time about getting life insurance. And the guy pitched me vocal insurance because I was a podcaster. And I said, you don't understand this podcast. What do you think? What do you think it's worth $5 an episode. So Selma Hayek is. How does Salma Hayek move into all this art dealing and jewel thievery and all this other stuff? Salma Hayek, very famous Mexican actress who we all know and beautiful woman. And she's been in a lot of movies that I like. Like, she is married to Francois Henri Panault.
- [43:13]
Chrissy Hoadley
That's right.
- [43:14]
Brian Green
The French businessman who heads up Gucci, Saint Laurent and Balenciaga.
- [43:20]
Chrissy Hoadley
Balenciaga, yeah, Balenciaga.
- [43:22]
Brian Green
Which has found themselves in a spot of bother lately.
- [43:25]
Chrissy Hoadley
Really?
- [43:26]
Brian Green
Well, yes, because they have been. Some people find their promotion of their particular clothing lines to be skewed toward. I gotta be. I want to be very careful about how I say this because I don't know what the rules of Twitch are yet. But children, like, it's not very young models, but very young models. Like children models. And so there's been a lot of hubbub.
- [43:51]
Chrissy Hoadley
Read about that. Yeah.
- [43:52]
Brian Green
Over the last couple of years about people wearing it and the famous people and all this other stuff. Yada, yada, yada, yada, yada. But they also own an empire of art collection. Art museums and luxury goods. He owns one of the most famous and expensive, not only art portfolios in the world, but art dealers in the world. And there are a lot of these paintings that are sold to this top 1%.
- [44:19]
Chrissy Hoadley
Yeah.
- [44:19]
Brian Green
Are being trafficked. Sold through his art dealership. And. And some people are observing that some of this art is also not super adult, let's put it that way.
- [44:35]
Chrissy Hoadley
Oh, really?
- [44:37]
Brian Green
Yes. One particular artist in general. One particular artist specifically. Excuse me, is kind of being targeted for the art that they do. Is some of it can't even be shown on social media. Some of it you can see because it's art. It's not photographs necessarily, but it's just a little weird.
- [44:54]
Chrissy Hoadley
Is it a current artist or. We're talking.
- [44:56]
Brian Green
It's a current artist.
- [44:57]
Chrissy Hoadley
Okay.
- [44:58]
Brian Green
And the paintings are trading for millions and millions of dollars. Kim K. Has some of this art, and if you look at some of this art, it's a little strange. It just is.
- [45:07]
Chrissy Hoadley
Speaking of stolen jewels, I was gonna bring that up earlier. Remember, she had that. She had like a million dollars worth of jewels stolen from Paris.
- [45:14]
Brian Green
She did. Right up, right out. Like walking down the street.
- [45:16]
Chrissy Hoadley
Right nose out of her hotel.
- [45:18]
Brian Green
Oh, that's right. Who is the. Remember we saw that one video of the lady who was, who was robbed of her jewels, like right on the. Tried to be kidnapped off the street and her dad like got involved and he got. Almost died and the whole night. Anyway, this, this world is really weird. And I start looking into Selma Hayek when I'm doing some research for the Pink Panthers. I start looking into Salma Hayek, Gucci, all the. This guy, you know, penal, who's really like the wealthiest of the wealthy. I mean, aristocrat must be so fun. Wealthy of the wealthy. Is it fun though, is my question. Because when I start looking into Padal and I start looking into Salma Hayek, I start realizing just how connected they are to all of the other aristocrats, these extraordinarily wealthy Bezos, Musks, Epstein's of the world. And it really started to like, it started to make me realize that there is this crust on the top of our society right now that is largely driving the narrative, the conversations, the things we think about, the things we do, the.
- [46:32]
Chrissy Hoadley
Why I was just reading something or listening to something they're doing. They were talking about all of these people that own. They, they own the media companies.
- [46:39]
Brian Green
Yes.
- [46:40]
Chrissy Hoadley
Yeah. If you think for one second what we consume.
- [46:43]
Brian Green
If you think for one second that Elon Musk. Musk bought Twitter because he is some champion of free speech. No, you're, you're wrongheaded on this. Like Joe Rogan. Yeah, I've. I've heard him say this before, you know, thank you, Elon, for buying Twitter. So now, you know, we can all say what we want to say. While I can appreciate that's an altruistic view on free speech, Joe, that's not why Elon bought Twitter. Elon bought Twitter because he can literally reach half a billion people with his iPhone. And that's why he bought Twitter. He can reach you, he can sway you, he can put his opinions out there in the world. He can literally move the earth left or right based on these conversations. He is very public about how he does this, as are a lot of people, politicians, they're very public about how they do that. I'd say public, meaning they're in public life. But then there's this whole upper crust that's not so public, like Panal, who's moving billions of dollars worth of extremely valuable goods and services all around the world without any of us paying attention to any of it. But it has so much influence on our day to day lives and we just don't realize it. It is not a Conspiracy theory. It is a practical way of moving through life. When you are that well to do, you almost have to get in that game because you want to protect this. It's just natural to want to protect the things you have to amass more to play the games the other people in your circles are playing to do the things that the other people in your circles are doing. And that includes owning media companies and fine art and trafficking and goods and services that are beyond comprehension in price. Beyond comprehension in price. And the rest of us, no matter how hard we try, will unlikely reach that. It is nice to think about, but yeah, you might have a couple million dollars in your bank account and have a nice boat in Miami and a condo here and a townhome there, but you're not going to be moving in the Panal worlds. That's not going to happen. Or the Epstein worlds or any of that other stuff. The more that I read about these Epstein emails, the more I realize how interconnected all of it is. It's all interconnected. I'm not talking about. I'm not trafficking conspiracy theory. It's plain English. In the emails and the text messages, he knew everybody, Everybody knew him. And he was moving the world the way that he wanted to move it because they were asking him for favors and he was doing them for him. It's insane. And when you are this rich and you can stuff your art and your shoes and your fine jewels and all the other stuff that's beyond priceless into a place where it'll never be taxed and never be touched, never be seen or heard from again until a rainy day when you need it or passed on to your kin, whatever it is, then the game is rigged. The game is rigged. I want to start a free port for people who are like lower middle class, right? So I can take my $10 target guitar and put it in there and charge like 6 cents a square foot per decade. You know what I'm saying? Oh, wait, that's called self storage. That's what that's called, self storage. I don't have to scan my retina when I go to Easy Store down the street. This is the way that. This is the way that it is. And art and jewels. I almost think of the Pink Panthers like Robin Hood a little bit. I'd like to think they're doing something good with that money. Somewhere. Somewhere along the line there's. It's probably going to some Serbian like overlord.
- [50:21]
Chrissy Hoadley
But yeah, yeah, there's a whole underworld and black market for a lot of this stuff. It's like, too with the antiquities, you know, a lot of the stolen, you know, stuff from Greece or Italy or the Roman Empire. Yeah. Or Egypt.
- [50:36]
Brian Green
Yeah, yeah. It's all. It's all interconnected in some way, shape or form. There's a whole. There's things going on out there, guys, that we just are not aware of. It's weird. And then yesterday.
- [50:47]
Chrissy Hoadley
Well, then we're addicted to our TikTok. That's how we're living. Instead.
- [50:51]
Brian Green
There it is. And there is the rubber. The rub is, as long as we are interacting with this thing and watching Brian on Twitch, we're just. We're too dumb to know. We're too dumb to care. We don't care because, you know, patty cake, 11707, just put out another reel that I like about kitty cats or my favorite streamers. Getting arrested for, you know, a little pot in his pocket. I mean, it's unbelievable. Oh, well, listen, it's. You know, I don't have the answers. I wish I had the answers. I don't have the answers. Chrissy has the answers, but she won't tell me. Jeff's been giving her the secrets. Jeff's in the 1%. Jeff flies privately. Well, once a year on his friend's plane. Yeah. Where's the rich guy when you need him? Yeah, I did meet him. He was great.
- [51:49]
Chrissy Hoadley
He took us to Pearl Jam.
- [51:49]
Brian Green
He took us to Pearl Jam. He was a great guy. What's up with him?
- [51:52]
Chrissy Hoadley
Yeah, he's in Hawaii.
- [51:53]
Brian Green
He's in Hawaii. We need you here to pay our bills. Can you fund the commercial break for, like, three months? Three months, and I think we're gonna be okay. All right. Okay, let's take a break. And we'll be back.
- [52:09]
Rachel
Let me do something Brian has never done.
- [52:12]
Brian Green
Be brief.
- [52:13]
Rachel
Follow us on Instagram at the commercial break. Text or call us 212-4333. Free tcb. That's 212-433-3822. Visit our website tcbpodcast.com for all the audio, video, and your free sticker. Then watch all the videos@YouTube.com thecommercial break and finally share the show. It's the best gift you could give a few aging podcasters. See, Brian, that really wasn't that difficult, now, was it? You're welcome. Just got a new puppy or kitten.
- [52:44]
Brian Green
Congrats.
- [52:44]
Rachel
But also, yikes. Between crates, beds, toys, treats, and those first few vet visits, you've probably already dropped a small fortune, which is where lemonade pet insurance comes in. It helps cover vet costs so you can focus on what's best for your new pet. The coverage is customizable, sign up is quick and easy, and your claims are handled in as little as three seconds. Lemonade offers a package specifically for puppies and kittens. Get a'llemonade.com pet your future self will thank you. Your pet won't. They don't know what insurance is.
- [53:17]
Von Miller
Don't miss Sebastian Maniscalco's new stand up special It Ain't Right now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney. Filmed live at the sold out United center arena in his hometown of Chicago, Sebastian's newest special features his larger than life presence. One of a kind physical comedy and hilarious everyday observations that will keep you laughing non stop. Don't miss him take the stage. In his most epic and legendary performance yet, Sebastian goes all in on family chaos, aging, non existent manners, and life's most relatable and frustratingly funny moments. Grab the popcorn and get ready to laugh. He's got a lot to get off his chest. Watch Sebastian Maniscalco. It Ain't Right now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney for bundle subscribers. Terms apply.
- [54:17]
Chrissy Hoadley
You open the fridge, there's nothing there. So what's it gonna be?
- [54:21]
Rachel
Greasy pizza? Sad drive thru burgers? Dish by Blue Apron is for nights like that. These are the pre made meals of your dreams. At least 20 grams of protein.
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Chrissy Hoadley
No artificial flavor or colors.
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Rachel
No chopping, no cleanup, no guilt. Keep the flavor, ditch the subscription. Get 20% off your first two orders with code APRON20.
- [54:43]
Chrissy Hoadley
Terms and conditions apply. Visit blueapron.com terms for more.
- [54:49]
Brian Green
Attention, attention. Chrissy has something to say.
- [54:52]
Chrissy Hoadley
Well, during the break I was looking at, I asked Chad to tell me about the black market for art. And it is.
- [54:57]
Brian Green
Oh, that's crazy. I just asked. I just asked Chad to do the same thing. All right, go.
- [55:00]
Chrissy Hoadley
It's a hidden global underground economy where stolen, looted, forged or illegally traded cultural objects are bought and sold.
- [55:09]
Brian Green
Wow.
- [55:10]
Chrissy Hoadley
It's massive, hard to measure, and is intertwined with organized crime. Here's a clear breakdown of how it works and why it exists. If you want me to get into it, but.
- [55:20]
Brian Green
Well, let me. I'll share an anecdote and then, and then we can break it down and then if, if you want to, if you want to read over it.
- [55:25]
Chrissy Hoadley
Forgeries. Yeah, yeah, go ahead.
- [55:26]
Brian Green
You read into it and I'll tell you a little anecdote. A personal anecdote. I was married and when I was married, some of you have listened to the stories. I'm not going to repeat it, but I was married and one of the. The my uncle in law, I guess is the best way to put it, was running one of the world's most prestigious brands. I'm not going to say it right this second, but you can probably research it and figure it out through the commercial break. He was running one of the world's most prestigious brands. Watches, handbags, items that belts, wallets that sometimes cost tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. It's the kind of place where you only find in the high end malls, if you ever find them in a mall. And you would have to make an appointment to go in and see it. Right. Okay. So this guy was running this company, this international company. And while he never talked to me directly, he would talk at someone else when he was talking to me because he didn't like me. I will share that. He explained how difficult it is to wrap your head around the problem of stolen merchandise, antiquities and things that are valuable. This valuable. Where a brand puts a label on something and it becomes extraordinarily valuable because that label is on it and then thieves want to get at it. So first of all, that market, then second of all, the black market for trading these goods.
- [56:45]
Chrissy Hoadley
Yeah. Is so billions of dollars a year.
- [56:48]
Brian Green
For his company alone was hundreds of millions of dollars. And it's not the world's largest company, but you would want one of their items if you could have one of their items. Let's put it that way. Okay, tell me more about how this stuff gets traffic throughout the universe.
- [57:02]
Chrissy Hoadley
Well, let's see. So how the black market operates is the supply chain generally looks like this Thief or looter acquires the piece. Middleman smuggles it and hides its origin. Dealer or corrupt expert provides false providence paperwork. Yeah. End buyer acquires it quietly, often wealthy private collectors, criminals using art to store value. And investors speculating on its future legality. Yeah, crypto transactions often involve cash. Crypto private sales via encrypted channels. Free ports.
- [57:39]
Brian Green
Free ports. That's where all the stolen art is. Maybe some of the jewels too.
- [57:44]
Chrissy Hoadley
Yeah. Who buys? Who buys it? Not just villains and movies. Real buyers include collectors who want more rare items. Without scrutiny, investors betting pieces will be legalized later, which I don't know how.
- [57:57]
Brian Green
That works, but I guess there's some way that you can, like over generations, you can then claim that you somehow came into.
- [58:05]
Chrissy Hoadley
That's true.
- [58:06]
Brian Green
But I would imagine the person who originally owned it would want it back even if it was Generations later. Yeah, yeah. Like the Jews who got all the. Or the people in Europe who got all of the stuff taken from them. You know, they. It was like a whole. They had whole, I think, units dedicated to returning art.
- [58:23]
Chrissy Hoadley
Yes.
- [58:24]
Brian Green
Yeah.
- [58:24]
Chrissy Hoadley
It's crazy. I mean, and then other people that buy it, criminal organizations using for money laundering, and then people who don't know the art is illegal. Yeah, it's a whole thing.
- [58:35]
Brian Green
So I have a friend on Facebook. I mean, I have a friend, and then we're on Facebook together and a couple of weeks ago made a post about the. One of these artists collectives where you can buy into the collective or a piece of art, and then as it raises value, it's like stock. You're buying stock in this piece of art, and then as it raises value, your piece of this particular piece of art then raises value, and you can trade it in and if there's, you know, supply, demand, all that other stuff. And he had made $10,000 in a little over three years. He put in like a thousand dollars. It was worth like, like his piece of this particular piece of art, it got traded at Christie's, and then the current value was like $12,000.
- [59:18]
Chrissy Hoadley
Wow.
- [59:18]
Brian Green
So he made like $10,000 in three years. Now, not a ton of money, but what if you put a hundred thousand.
- [59:23]
Rachel
Yeah, exactly.
- [59:24]
Brian Green
And he was $1.2 million. That's a big return on investment when you 10x your investment.
- [59:29]
Chrissy Hoadley
Well, that art just keeps going up and up and up.
- [59:32]
Brian Green
It really does. Listen, art is the new real estate. It's, you know, didn't Snoop Dogg buy a piece of Meta World or something like that? Remember, he bought a house sims or something, didn't he?
- [59:44]
Chrissy Hoadley
Met a world.
- [59:45]
Brian Green
Yeah. And I keep on getting these phone calls about buying my house on this, buying my house on some electronic map or something.
- [59:54]
Chrissy Hoadley
Really?
- [59:55]
Brian Green
Yeah. That somebody else was gonna buy. And I'm like, okay, I care. Yeah, there's a world out there. It's been replicated based on Google Earth. And now you can buy property, you can claim your property, you can buy it. You know, some properties are $10, some properties are a thousand dollars. And I. The fuck I'm gonna buy my property again. Online cares.
- [60:19]
Chrissy Hoadley
Exactly.
- [60:19]
Brian Green
But, you know, I had a friend one time who said, Listen, URLs are the new real estate.
- [60:24]
Chrissy Hoadley
Right?
- [60:25]
Brian Green
And okay, great. So he bought. He just was. Went on this buying spree for years. He was buying all kinds of URLs. He would get a whole list of URLs, and he just purchased them whole cloth. Right. You know, $500. He'd buy 5 million URLs or whatever. And then. And occasionally somebody would come to him and say, oh, yeah, I'll pay a thousand dollars for that or $500 for this or whatever. So I'm trying to do after the break, which is, by the way, I'll explain more about that in the future. But there's one episode out there in case you want to listen to it.
- [60:58]
Chrissy Hoadley
It's a good one.
- [60:59]
Brian Green
It's a good one. So maybe I'll. Maybe it'll just be the one episode podcast, like 18 million other podcasts. So he buys all this. So I'm trying to do after the pod, and the first thing you think about is, of course, I got to get a website to make sure that people can go to the website. And so I go to find after the break.com and I find that it is being sat on by a private individual. And so, you know, godaddy will contact that person or whatever, and it ends up being a company, like an investment company. So the guy calls me right back. I send him an email. He calls me like 15 minutes later. He's like, you want to buy afterthebreak.com? i said, yes, I do, but just depends on how much it is. He said, we'll sell it to you for $19,000. And I was like, $199,000. I don't even think the commercial break has made that much money. I'm going to buy it for $19,000. I go, it's for a podcast man. I'm not going to do that. He's like, what if it was 17,000? And I'm like, what if it was $17? Right.
- [62:02]
Chrissy Hoadley
That's for my language.
- [62:03]
Brian Green
Yeah. There's probably a reason why you haven't sold after the break yet. And it probably has to do with your $19,000 asking price. I'm not a Rembrandt. What are you doing? I'm going to put my URL in a freeport, lock it up and keep it humidified. That's not going to happen. Yeah, I mean, listen, art and jewels. It's the fascinating world of the art and jewel heists. I could talk about it all day long. I really could. Good. I've been down the rabbit hole. It's actually going to be an episode of after the break. So I did a lot of research, as you could clearly hear. I did a lot of research around it. It's the.
- [62:38]
Chrissy Hoadley
It is fascinating.
- [62:39]
Brian Green
It is fascinating. I mean, we could get into it about Vegas robberies. We could get into it about all kind of different stuff. That's maybe, maybe once a in a while we'll go into that kind of heisty mode, figure out a new heist. Everyone loves a good heist story because done correctly, like the Pink Panthers, it's not the feel good story of the year, but it's kind of the anti hero story of the year. I'm not saying that robbing a small mom and pop jeweler is a good thing, but these aren't mom and pop jewelers. These guys are have kabillions of dollars worth of jewels sitting in their, in their room, you know, you know what I, I want to like, side note real quick, try not to get too ADHD here, but there's a guy that's currently on Instagram. Instagram. He goes into these jewelry shows, okay? Jewelry show. There's 50 jewelry jewelers selling all kinds, diamonds, golds. They're kind of like conventions. They're shows, you know, they, they trade usually at wholesale. And he'll go in and he'll take 15 minutes and he'll look at someone's entire case. We're talking millions of dollars worth of. And he'll say, I'll buy it for $2.2 million. All of the it. And the, the dealer's like, you're going to buy all of this for $2.2 million. So he makes them a wholesale offer right there without ever doing any investigation, except with his eyeball sometimes counting. You can see him go through the process and then he'll just make a purchase of all of these diamonds, gems, emeralds, gold, white gold, all this stuff right off the rip. And it's fascinating. I'm like, damn, dude, you got big ball. I, I don't. He doesn't put that part in the actual Instagram story. So I don't know. But I'm assuming he's a dealer that then goes and sells them wholesale. He is relying on his ability to eyeball something and get a deal, right? And he's hoping that like all human beings, that by throwing a big number out there, you get fascinated enough to take the offer. Now it works about 50% of the time. 50% of the time they say yes, 50% of the time they say no, believing that they're getting, getting hoodwinked into something that then they, they will regret down the line.
- [64:45]
Chrissy Hoadley
But especially if he's filming himself doing it too.
- [64:48]
Brian Green
He films himself doing it. I mean, someone else is filming him doing it, but he's got such huge testicles to walk in. And just how much money is he lost? How much money is he won? That's the real. I want to know, tell me how much money you're making off of each of these things. Are you actually getting a good deal or are you doing this for views? Are you ultra rich and doing this for views? Which, whatever. Either way, you know, listen, I watched a guy from the UAE one time mail out thousands of dollars worth of American cash to anybody that sent him a TikTok message. I'd love to talk to those people and see if they ever got their TikTok cash. And that, my friends, is where the real money is. Right there is Saudi Arabia.
- [65:29]
Chrissy Hoadley
Oh, well, yes, the uae.
- [65:31]
Brian Green
The uae. Saudi Arabia. They're about to buy Paramount Pictures.
- [65:35]
Chrissy Hoadley
What?
- [65:35]
Brian Green
They're about to buy Paramount Pictures.
- [65:37]
Chrissy Hoadley
I thought that that was just sold that one guy, Sky Dance.
- [65:40]
Brian Green
Yeah, but it's being funded by Saudi Arabia. Yeah. So welcome to the show, my friends. Welcome to the show. Media, media. That's what it's all about. Control the narrative. Control the narrative. Control the cash. Control the world. That's what you need to do. And so they're playing their cards and they're playing the long game. I mean, look, they bought live golf. And that certainly. I mean, there's major implications there. Who doesn't want to watch washed up golfers on wb? Well, now they own the wb, right? And live golf. So there you go. It's all. It's a grand conspiracy come full circle. All right, settle down, settle down.
- [66:24]
Chrissy Hoadley
That was fun. I love talking about this stuff too.
- [66:26]
Brian Green
I do too.
- [66:27]
Chrissy Hoadley
Yeah. Reading about it, watching it, talking about it.
- [66:31]
Brian Green
I love a good heist movie. I love a good heist story. And the real, the real stories are so much more fascinating than anything that's on cellular. It's.
- [66:43]
Chrissy Hoadley
It was one that was just on Netflix that I watched a little while back. And he. This, this little network of people went, did and like went into the diamond district up in New York and a bunch of stuff.
- [66:53]
Brian Green
Yeah. Now, I wouldn't want to fuck with that diamond district. Those guys look tough.
- [66:57]
Chrissy Hoadley
They do.
- [66:58]
Brian Green
Yeah, those guys look tough. There's another guy that's out there that does. He's in the diamond district and he's trying to make a name for himself on Instagram. So he goes in and he's a negotiator on other people's behalf. So someone will want to sell a watch, like a really nice watch, and he'll go for $1,000. I help you, you know, I help you get $6,000 extra on that one watch. But I don't know if anyone's told him but the ones where he fails, he probably shouldn't put them up there because he looks like a jerk off and he fails way more than he wins. And that it might be, you know, it might be rage bait. I'm not really sure. But he's, he's clearly in over his end. Clearly in over.212. 4333 TCB 212433, 3822 questions? Comments, concerns Content Ideas Ideas. We have a phone again. So there you go. Phone's working one more time and I bought 286 messages to respond to. I'll get around to him. Maybe tonight. Join us on our streaming channel. Not next week, Thanksgiving, we're off but we're going to be streaming at the commercial break on Instagram, TCB podcast on Twitch at the commercial break, I mean at the commercial break on YouTube, TCB podcast on Twitch but at the commercial break on Instagram also is our handle over there. And at the TCB podcast on tick tock and tcbpodcast.com that's where you can find all the audio, all the video and your free sticker. You want a free sticker? Go to the contact us button. Drop down menu says I want my free sticker. Give us your address and we'll send one to you. What else? What else is there to say? It's been a fun episode.
- [68:33]
Chrissy Hoadley
It has.
- [68:33]
Brian Green
And why not? We'll do it again. So anybody, anybody that's interested in watching.
- [68:40]
Chrissy Hoadley
Give us Henry Mancini.
- [68:42]
Brian Green
There you go. Give us 15 minutes and we'll come back. YouTube.com the commercial break all right, Chrissy, that's all I can do for now.
- [68:49]
Chrissy Hoadley
I think so.
- [68:51]
Brian Green
I love you. I love you. Best you.
- [68:53]
Chrissy Hoadley
Best to you.
- [68:54]
Brian Green
Best you out there in the podcast universe. Until next time, Chrissy and I will say we do say and we must say goodbye.
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Chrissy Hoadley
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Brian Green
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Rachel
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Rachel
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