A businessman is under investigation after he burned a sketch of the artist Frida Kahlo to promote the sale of NFT, which was based on a sketch by the artist. Martin Mobarak burned a 1944 sketch worth $10 million in a martini glass at a party in Miami.

Kahlo's sketch, called "Fantasmones Siniestros" (Sinister Ghosts), dated 1944, was a collection of surrealistic creatures drawn in crayon, pencil, and ink, apparently destroyed at the Frida.NFT launch party. According to the New York Times, the project has sold four NFTs so far.

Video from the event shows Mobarak, surrounded by a frightening level of security, removing a painting from its frame, placing it in a martini glass, and setting it on fire. Almost unbelievably, a mariachi band began to play the popular Mexican song "Cielito Lindo". Some in the audience applaud the act.

"We had to do something drastic to get attention," Mobarak told The New York Times.

Even the Web 3.0 crowd is skeptical about whether they would actually pull off such a vulgar stunt and whether the pictures being burned are real.

Mobarak claims to have bought the painting in 2015 and insists that the burned piece is authentic; the NFT website has a certificate of authenticity and a certificate of provenance showing that it is original. As for those who doubt whether Mobarak really burned it, he says, "How do they know I didn't burn it?"

Mexico's National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature is currently investigating whether Mobarak burned Kahlo's original paintings and whether he committed a federal crime in doing so. Kahlo's works have been protected as "artistic monuments" under Mexican law since 1984, and the penalty could be decades in prison and a fine equal to the value of the work.

The Museo Frida Kahlo in Coyoacán also issued a statement condemning the act, noting that it owns the rights to all of Kahlo's works and has not given any permission for the NFT to be produced. The group called the action "destruction of our country's cultural heritage" and said it had nothing to do with "the collector and his activities."

Gregorio Luke, an expert on Mexican and Latin American art and culture, said: "I think this man should be put in jail."

The Frida.NFT project seeks to see this act as one of global philanthropy. This profound act was done so that "unfortunate and sick children, battered women, and other underprivileged people around the world could have hope."

Mobarak's plan was to sell 10,000 NFTs for 3 ETH (about $3,600 at current prices), theoretically raising about $36 million. 'I am a fan of Frida's work. She endured physical, mental, and spiritual pain," Mobarak told the Miami Herald. 'I'm using that one little painting to create something really good that she would appreciate.'

Of all the NFT trends, this idea of destroying real objects to give digital tokens mystical legitimacy is among the worst. Artist Damien Hirst recently featured 10,000 works in a 2021 project called "Heni" with the opportunity for buyers to choose whether to keep the original for one year or destroy it to obtain an NFT. 4,581 people chose the NFT. Collection #17 is titled "none of this matters."

In 2021, the group Burnt Banksy also stunt burned a Banksy painting. This example had at least an element of wit, as Banksy's piece was titled "Morons" and depicted an auction room of people buying art at Christie's.

Who knows where this will lead. Did Mobarak punk the art world, or did he really destroy the work of a major 20th century artist in order to sell NFT that no one would want? The Kahlo Museum also has a long history of seeking legal redress for the misuse of her work.

"People may see it as me destroying them. But I have not. This is how I present it to the world. People are going to see it. I think it's better for the world and I can claim it than if it's sitting in somebody's private collection.