While diving deep into the problematic nature of museums and their penchant for looting artifacts, John Oliver cited an unlikely hero in the effort to stop the fraudulent sale of pilfered items: Kim Kardashian. During Sunday’s episode of Last Week Tonight, Oliver revealed a tale about how a photo of Kardashian at the 2018 MET Gala inadvertently led to the collapse of an art fraud scheme.
As the late night host tells it, Kardashian wore an all gold dress that coincidentally happened to match an all-gold coffin of the Egyptian Nedjemankh that was in the process of being purchased by the MET Museum. Kardashian was invited to snap a photo next to the coffin, which naturally, bounced all over the internet thanks to her intense viral fame. However, an anonymous tipster recognized the coffin and informed international authorities that had it been looted. With the MET Museum alerted, it scuttled the $4 million sale all thanks to the publicity from Kardashian.
Via Deadline:
The late-night show’s episode continued to focus on dealers not doing their proper research when acquiring art pieces that are, a lot of times, stolen. Oliver took another jab at Kardashian when he noted that museums couldn’t just sit back and not do research and wait “until Kim Kardashian takes a photograph in front of one of our objects and we’re humiliated on the international stage. This cannot be all her responsibility, she’s too busy revolutionizing shape wear.”
Oliver also got in a self-deprecating jab by showing a picture of himself next to Kardashian and quipping, “the woman has a real knack for producing incredible images just by standing next to men that look like they died a long time ago.”
You can watch the Kim Kardashian segment at the 23:45 mark below:
(Via Deadline)