Aug. 6, 2026

The Vending Machine That Sells Original Artwork

Show Notes
Transcript

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: Kansas City’s 120-year-old Rock Island Bridge over the Kansas River has reopened as a $20 million destination with restaurants, event space, walking paths, and panoramic views, after engineers found its steel structure largely intact. In Kent, England, two garden ornaments thought to be concrete were identified as rare 18th-century Italian marble busts from Florence (1720–1730) depicting Apollo and Diana. Paris’s Musée d’Orsay opened a permanent gallery of Nazi-looted WWII artworks with unknown rightful owners, detailing provenance to aid restitution. In Minneapolis, Inkwell Booksellers hosts a vending machine dispensing $1 mystery original mini-artworks from local artists, selling nearly 3,000 with proceeds going directly to artists. Finally, Mark was reunited with a wallet lost 30 years ago during a community cleanup, containing early ’90s mementos including a Leeds United 1992 membership card.

00:09 Bridge Revival
00:52 Garden Statues Surprise
01:40 Orsay Restitution Gallery
02:25 Art Vending Machine
03:09 Wallet Found After Decades

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Caalaroga Shock Media. Hey there of Johnny Mack with five

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good news stories. The hottest meeting spot in Kansas City

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is a railroad bridge. That's right. It's a one hundred

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and twenty year old railroad bridge that once carried trains

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across the Kansas River. The Rock Island Bridge has reopened

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as a destination featuring restaurants and events based scenic walking

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paths and panoramic river views. That's right. The redevelopment cost

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twenty million dollars. Engineers discovered the bridge's original steel structure

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was remarkably well preserved. They to replace a few bolts

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and clean up some rust, but much of the one

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hundred and twenty year old framework remained intact. Today, visitors

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can stroll across the bridge for free, dying at a

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restaurant built into the historic trusses, not for free or

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tent concerts, markets and community events overlooking the river. Meanwhile,

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on Kent, England, a pair of weathered garden ornaments that

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had been dismissed as old concrete decorations turned out to

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be rare eighteenth century Italian marble sculptures worth thousands of dollars.

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These statues were discovered during a house sale where they

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had spent years sitting outside with the garden plants. The

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homeowner believed they were just, you know, concrete ornaments, but

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in a state sale expert noticed something unusual. After closer inspection,

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the bus were identified as hand carved marble sculptures created

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in Florence, Italy, sometime between seventeen twenty and seventeen thirty.

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The two figures depict Apollo, the Greek god of music

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in the sun, and Diana, the goddess of the hunt

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and the moon. Experts believe they may have once decorated

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a grand estate or formal garden before making their way

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to Britain during the era of the Grand Tour, when

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wealthy travelers would turned home with European art and antiques.

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In France, one of the most famous museums has opened

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a gallery unlike any other. The goal is for every

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piece on display to leave The Messelle d'urse has created

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a permanent exhibition featuring artwork stolen during the Nazi occupation

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of France and World War Two that still have no

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identified rightful owners. More than one hundred thousand works of

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art were loose from France during the war. After the

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conflict ended, about sixty thousand pieces were recovered in Germany

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and Austria. Roughly forty five thousand of those were eventually

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returned to the owners, thousands remained unclaimed. The new exhibit

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highlights the effort to return those to the people with

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the proper ownership. Each artwork is accompanied by information tracing

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what's known about the journey from where it was found

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how it entered the museum collection, while also making clear

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what remains a mystery. In Minneapolis, a new way for

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local artists to share their work. You'll find it inside

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ink Will booksellers. Customers can insert four quarters into a

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vending machine and receive a mystery piece of original artwork

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for just the one dollar. The project was created by

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Lilly In, a Minnesota artist who wanted to make it

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easier for merging artists to sell their work and connect

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with new audiences. Each lot in the machine features creations

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from a different local artists, along with a short biography

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explaining who they are. Buyers never know exactly what they'll

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get until the small envelope drops into the tray. Since

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the machine was installed, as sold nearly three thousand miniature

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artworks with every dollar going directly to the artists. Several

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artists reported that customers later sought them out at art

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fairs and purchased additional pieces and good news from Mark,

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he was reunited with his wallet that he lost thirty

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years ago. Here's the twist, he didn't even know he

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had lost it. Mark's wallet was discovered during a community

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cleanup beneath overgrown vegetation in what had once been a

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private garden. Inside was a collection of memories from the

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early nineties, including a membership card for Leeds United's at

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nineteen ninety two season, back when Dexter covered the club

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for The Yorkshire Evening Post. Mark has no memory of

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even losing the wallet. He said he spent a lot

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of time in the area but doesn't remember being over

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that way. His best guests is somebody stole the wallet

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after night out thirty years ago. He looked back at

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his thirty year old photo ID and reflected that yeah,

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he was thirty years old, loved working in journalism and

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was simply enjoying life. Good attitude and those your five

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good news stories for today, have a good one.