Verso: An Art History Podcast

Discover the hidden side of art history with Verso. Every other week, we peel back the layers of famous and forgotten masterpieces to reveal the stories that shaped them—art heists, secret paintings, scandals, and more. Whether it’s uncovering the drama behind the canvas or exploring the unexpected connections between art and culture, Verso will change how you see the art, and the world, around you.Want to support the show? Buy me a coffee here: https://buymeacoffee.com/versopodEmail me: hello@versopod.com

Verso: An Art History Podcast is a arts podcast hosted by Emma Laramie, with 22 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Emma Laramie hosts Verso: An Art History Podcast, a arts show with 22 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

• 

  Episode #18

  The Mystery of the Lost Amber Room

  Aug 10, 202640 min

  The Amber Room was an entire chamber made of carved amber, backed in gold, and once called the Eighth Wonder of the World. Prussia built it, gave it to Russia, and the Nazis looted it in 1941. In 1945 it vanished in the ruins of Königsberg and has never been found. For eighty years people have searched mines, lakes, bunkers, and shipwrecks for it. This is the story of what most likely happened to it, the curator who spent his life refusing to accept it, and why a lost treasure is so much easier to live with than a destroyed one. Buy Me a Coffee: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://buymeacoffee.com/versopod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Me on TikTok : ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://tiktok.com/@versopod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Email me : hello@versopod.com Further Reading: Catherine Scott-Clark & Adrian Levy, The Amber Room: The Controversial Truth About the Greatest Hoax of the Twentieth Century (Atlantic Books, 2004) Russell Shor, "The History and Reconstruction of the Amber Room," Gems & Gemology , vol. 54, no. 4 (Winter 2018), Gemological Institute of America "The Amber Room," History's Greatest Mysteries , narrated by Laurence Fishburne (A&E / The HISTORY Channel, 2022)

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Episode #20

  The Art Thief and His Attic Full of Masterpieces

  Jul 27, 202658 min

  Stéphane Breitwieser stole more than 200 works of art from the museums of Europe, hid them in his mother's attic, and swore he was never a thief. No masks, no weapons, no ransom. Just a young couple in nice clothes, walking out in broad daylight with a fortune in Renaissance paintings, silver, and ivory. He called museums "prisons for art." He said he only stole for love, never money. This episode follows the most prolific art thief in history from his first stolen pistol to a canal full of silver, and to the fire in the Alsatian woods that no one can fully explain. It's a story about beauty, obsession, and what happens when loving something means you have to be the only one who has it. Buy Me a Coffee: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://buymeacoffee.com/versopod⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Me on TikTok : ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://tiktok.com/@versopod⁠⁠⁠⁠ Email me : hello@versopod.com Suggested Further Reading: Michael Finkel, The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession (Knopf, 2023) Vincent Noce, La Collection égoïste (J. C. Lattès, 2005) Stéphane Breitwieser with Yves de Chazournes, Confessions d'un voleur d'art (Anne Carrière, 2006)

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Episode #18

  The Painter and the Guillotine

  Jun 30, 202623 min

  Jacques-Louis David painted Antoine and Marie Anne Lavoisier in 1788, in one of the most famous portraits of the 18th century. Six years later, Lavoisier was guillotined during the French Revolution's Reign of Terror, and David, now a member of the Committee of General Security, helped run the machine that sent him there. This is the story of the painter, the chemist who founded modern chemistry, and the unanswerable question of how much David's loyalty to the Revolution cost the man he'd once painted with such tenderness. Art as propaganda, complicity in the Terror, and a portrait that still won't tell us the truth. Buy Me a Coffee: ⁠⁠⁠https://buymeacoffee.com/versopod⁠⁠⁠ Follow Me on TikTok : ⁠⁠⁠https://tiktok.com/@versopod⁠⁠⁠ Email me : hello@versopod.com Suggested Further Reading Roberts, Warren. Jacques-Louis David, Revolutionary Artist: Art, Politics, and the French Revolution. University of North Carolina Press, 1989. Dowd, David L. "Jacques-Louis David, Artist Member of the Committee of General Security." The American Historical Review , vol. 57, no. 4, 1952, pp. 871–892. Schnapper, Antoine. David. Translated by Helga Harrison, Alpine Fine Arts Collection, 1982. Centeno, Silvia A., Dorothy Mahon, and David Pullins. "Refashioning the Lavoisiers." The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2021. https://www.metmuseum.org/perspectives/david-lavoisier-conservation

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Episode #17

  When Bob Dylan Traded an Andy Warhol Painting for a Couch

  Jun 15, 202620 min

  In 1966, Bob Dylan left Andy Warhol's Factory with a silver Elvis painting tied to the roof of his car, then traded it for a couch. This episode follows that Double Elvis through the Factory, the supposed Dylan–Warhol rivalry, Edie Sedgwick, and a much stranger truth, all the way to its home at MoMA and a $27 million auction that proves Dylan should've kept it. A story about myth, fame, and what we decide is worth keeping. Buy Me a Coffee: ⁠⁠https://buymeacoffee.com/versopod⁠⁠ Follow Me on TikTok : ⁠⁠https://tiktok.com/@versopod⁠⁠ Email me : hello@versopod.com Suggested Further Reading Blake Gopnik, Warhol: A Life as Art (Ecco/HarperCollins, 2020) Jean Stein and George Plimpton, Edie: An American Biography (Knopf, 1982) Howard Sounes, Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan (Grove Press, 2001)

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Episode #12

  Whistler v. Ruskin: The Trial Over a Pot of Paint

  Jun 1, 202626 minS0

  <p>In 1877, the most powerful art critic in Britain published a review calling the painter James McNeill Whistler a fraud. Whistler sued him for libel. What followed was a two-day trial in which paintings were held upside down, a jury of twelve people was asked to determine the future of art criticism, and the whole thing ended with a verdict of one farthing in damages.</p><p><br></p><p>Ruskin and Whistler never met. Not before the trial, not during it, and not after. Two men who had never been in the same room managed to derail each other's...

  ListenShow Notes

Recent guests on Verso: An Art History Podcast. Study who booked and why before you pitch.

Based on semantic analysis of episode topics and host coverage, this show is a strong guest fit for executives in:

Industry fit is computed by PitchCentric using vector embeddings of the show's episode catalog.