Mark Russo: This Is Why Art Hits Different: Energy, Frequency, and Value | DSH #1801

if you ever walked away from something and actually had a good feeling and not know why

if you play hard rock music not to knock hard rock music and you play it for a plant the plant

will weather and die literally like almost in an hour if you play it musical or symphony or an

opera it actually blossoms it's just frequency it's energy you believe or not that our silver

sculpture we're gonna have the grand opera singers of Miami program frequency into our sculptures so

the piece not only radiates energy it radiates positive energy it's like walking on the ocean if

you're walking the beach and gotten an ion charge from the saltwater grounding right it's like

recharging your battery and your iPhone all right guys we got a really special guest here today we

got Mark Russo CEO of Treasure Investments we're gonna talk art today that's a very interesting

topic right yeah there really is there very interested very excited to share it with you the

story and the journey yeah and historically as an asset it's performed very well over time right

blue chip artwork does perform quite well by definition blue chip is artwork that's

the most expensive most valuable has a history of high value sales at the auction houses yeah

and the annual appreciation statically is about 14 percent so if you own a piece of a famous

painting like a Picasso they go up just if you have it in your home or your museum they go up by

14 usually about 14.2 percent annually for the last three decades so it's it's a great opportunity

to invest if you can have a chance to buy a blue chip piece of artwork like that yeah that's

impressive that's double the S&P right it's it's it outperforms all the major indexes and it has

for the last three decades wow so when you got into art was that kind of the main reason you know

no I got in the artwork because I'm a designer artist myself um I started back in the 80s if

you can believe that I don't want to date myself but I had a chance to go to an art show in New

Orleans and represent an artist and I said so what do I get he said I'll give you 20 percent

so I had a little booth it was a New Orleans investment conference and I sold 900

gram worth of artwork in three days and I thought holy smokes I made $180,000 in commission this

is back in the 80s I thought that's a lot like that I can it that's there was a lot I spent a million

dollar it probably is but I spent every penny the next day but at the end of the day I it wasn't

that I was a good salesperson it's just that I knew the product and I was passionate about it

and I had fun with it and I got I got to interact with people that were really like wow tell me

about this and that eagle in this stage coach or whatever it was that I was selling at the time

and I was just they could tell I was excited and I was passionate and that translated into a lot

of sales and that kind of what started my my career in the art world wow so about three decades

you've been in it uh been in it for 38 years 39 years wow time really yeah and was it harder to

identify the blue chip stuff back then or what was your process yeah that was more commercial blue

chip kind of landed in my lap um in 2004 when I bought a foundry in Italy okay and I had a chance

to buy a famous foundry back in Naples Italy and they would they got access to some of the museums

and laid plaster is directly on top of marble masterpieces what's the foundry for people that don't know

it's called it was called kiratsi a famous foundry and they got access to mainly the archaeological

museum in Naples Italy um some access to the Vatican and other the billboard gays and they laid

plaster on these marble masterpieces and it's from those plaster that I I owned and was able to

produce posthumous originals and that's kind of what got me into the blue chip part of it

commercially since the 80s I've built a 2700 plaster molds we own the largest master mold

collection in the world 230 artists and it's mermaid its golfer's ballerina stage coaches western

pop artwork at fantasy artwork so it's a lot of different artworks not just one subject matter

or theme and how do you see the art space evolving now because we were talking before you see

like an immersive process well I think yeah well you look I love artwork I'm an artist designer

and I like to collaborate with brilliant artists because everybody has their own unique skill set

and if I wanted to do a commission or like have you John build me a golfer and you're the best

golfer artist in the world as you are building and I'm saying let's change that let's give it more

character change the swing change this look so I'm literally a producer designer but I've got the

best hands of the world making the art piece what's changing now in the art world is that people

walk through a museum they'll go through this or that or the getty and they'll look at a piece and

they'll just kind of whistle right by it and yeah the artworks amazing looking at the Mona Lisa

but imagine if lead or da Vinci appeared on your phone or on a screen in front of you and told you

why he painted that painting so what we're doing we're leading edge it's it's it's literally

tip of the spear we're we're now we're going to be doing some exhibitions where we're having the

world's AI gather all the data on the artist if they're if it's post posthumous or modern artists

whether they be interviewing me or something where you walk by the piece it activates on your phone

via QR code or just automatic action and you can literally interact with the artist

a why the piece was made the message the purpose and the inspiration wow that changes everything

because no one's done that before imagine walking up to the David at the gallery academia in Florence

and having Michelangelo with pronounce Michelangelo tell you why he created it and he didn't even

start there was two other artists it started and he took over really but just that information

because you leave with an impression first of all you feel good because it's frequency it's energy

but you now you have an understanding of why it was made so you literally walk away with an education

that you didn't have 90 seconds before you saw that piece so we're bringing that it's cutting edge

it changes the dynamic of the art world in a major way and we do and we have the most beautiful artwork

in the world but now we're going to give it an educational and immersive experience it's never

been done before and we're treasure investments is the ticket for that you know it's not

you how it's amazing because I feel like I used to love going to museums but now I don't get

that same affection you know no I mean look younger generation isn't going to the museums I mean

it's they're not that big so to get them back involved and engaged you have to create that

immersive experience which I think has been missing and up until now AI I mean we rendered

Michelangelo via AI because he did self-portrait of himself so the image is there AI turned them

into a real person and now it's gathering all the data from the world all the archival

information and you could literally communicate with them that data we're compartmentalizing that

so if you could walk up to the P.A.T. we actually cast the P.A.T. on pure silver it's currently the

largest silver casting in the world but when you walk by the piece Michelangelo will literally tell

you why he the reason how long it took him why he did it who he did it for the commission who

it was for all that information so but imagine tacking to an artist it made that piece 500 years

that's something that's special and we'll leave that lasting impression you'll walk away feeling

good that's what we're doing yeah you're doing a lot of stuff around metals right even your business

cards are made out of bronze yeah we look I we've done primarily bronze I mean we've done

thousands and thousands of bronze in fact we've done a thousand monuments where the number one

bronze builder in the world whether they're 60 foot Eagles for casino is their life size horses

for ranches we do it all what I love about precious metals especially silver is it's the most

conductive metal in the world it radiates energy actually records frequency which is amazing silver

silver and it it it actually is the it's got healing properties it's actually an antibacterial

but listen people don't understand if you walk up to not can talk about all kinds of art exhibitions

if you ever walked away from something and actually had a good feeling and not know why

if you play hard rock music not to knock hard rock music or like some heavy metal head banger

stuff I can not that that's bad and you play it for a plant the plant will weather and die

literally like almost in an hour if you play a concert musical or symphony or an opera it actually

blossoms it's just frequency it's energy a lot of people don't know that so you believe or not

that our silver sculptures we're gonna have the grand opera singers of Miami program frequency

into our sculptures so the piece not only it radiates energy it radiates positive energy it's like

walking on the ocean if you're walking on the beach and gotten an ion charge from the saltwater

grounding right it's it's it's an ion pot it's like recharging your battery and your

iPhone our artwork will actually recharge you subliminally subconsciously an ion charge

with high frequency and positive energy so that's a different way we were I was talking about that

at art basil and Miami just this the last December was really fun but we talked about frequency

and that was the whole thing that if you look at the right artwork there's things that make you feel

good artwork it's got to make you feel good I was in an exhibition in Naples years ago and I

walked into this room I thought this is it was horrible it was a exhibition I won't say the artist

but it was cow heads in a glass box with flies I thought this is this is this I walked away feeling

not good yeah and then you walk around the corner you see this spectacular sculpture by Glycos of

the Hercules I'm like that's amazing so again it's what the message is it's frequency that was

energy and I like good energy we like to produce pieces that have positive energy it's a big thing

I never realized how powerful art could be in that sense in an energetic sense well art is the

most known form of communication in humankind it's really what I mean wherever everything you

all the banners in your logo this is all artwork right so artwork is in everything it's on every

piece of paper it's in every music it's all art about art so we are really we love artwork and

I mean you can't tell I'm passionate about it right you devoted your whole life to it it's cool

to see you wear the artist hop but also the business hot as well I feel like that's a pretty

rare next yeah you know look artist and I see a lot of amazing artists but they're so focused on

the artwork that there's a little bit of a disconnect you have to have you kind of have an

entrepreneurial mindset I've seen some great artists that literally that I was going to buy some

paintings from an artist that did all the Autobahn stamps of these spectacular bird scenes I mean

the most beautiful things you're seeing he was crying and this and that and the other and I said

you were living in your ex-girlfriends bedroom apartment I'm willing to give you all this money

for these spectacular paintings he's like no those are mine you're stealing my soul I said no I'm

not stealing anything I just want to buy your paintings so they get so passionate about what and

that's that's the thing is is it when you're emotional it makes you a good artist it's they had a

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I'm a designer at artists but I've been able to compartmentalize my wanting to monetize the art

to cash you got it in the world you got to pay your bills yeah yeah so I've been able to do that

and use other artists and work and collaborate with artists people ask me what's my the favorite

thing I love to do in the art world said you know what is producing new images is the creative

process whether I'm doing it myself or I'm working with another artist that creative process is

what really drives right that's what's really fun about it helping the artist bring their artists

absolutely in collaborations like change this change that we're doing a series of these biblical

medallions that are like inspired by Michelangelo in battle of the centaurs but it's just I'm working

with the artist and his his name's laryn guillieri's a genius and we're having a lot of fun with that

I'm also working with Lorenzo Medici who is great great great great grandfather's commission Michelangelo

to do the battle of the centaurs and other medallions which was an inspiration for our new

medallion series right now our spiritual series we do listen we do it all whether it's again

western biblical wildlife cultural we're doing a series of spiritual medallions called the victory

angels over demon series that are like just spectacular release of angels like casting out these

demons from heaven and these beautiful medallions and gold and bronze and pierce over another part

of our model it's very exciting that's beautiful is it hard for a new artist to make a name for

themselves who says it is you know in the ones that do and get a good connection with the gallery

they ended at the end of the day mostly with nothing a lot of great artists get nothing really

there's a few points we represent 230 artists exclusively most of them are past but we work with

some living artists we have some artists in Hawaii Steve Smeltrie's really great as these really

fun whimsical little pieces and no but again you know we like to help support artists and if

there's a good talent out there we will take them to we have 122 gallery partners and we produce

a lot of great artwork for those and put them out there so there's an opportunity for someone with

a great talent that we'll look at it and maybe we'll sponsor them and get behind them yeah

usually you like the more tenured people that you know look there's we have some graffiti artwork

on train cars where we're selling through some of our gallery partners so it could be graffiti

artwork to artwork like Michelangelo so it's everything it's whatever looks good resonates well

has a great message it's positive and uplifting and we usually get behind that in a big way nice

yeah I want to start collecting it I was looking at some Salvador Dolly pieces the melting

clock yeah that's interesting for this to go I feel like it'd be the melting clock I had so

many come with me that they want me to put that on that where we have a artwork on 117 cruise

ships in 52 countries and one of those was the Dolly melting clock I couldn't pin it down but

that's an interesting story but I'll tell you about that later wow exciting yeah I feel like for

the brand it would be cool to have like that would be a great that'd be a great iconic logo for you

yeah for digital social yeah that'd be great yeah he's someone his his story was crazy man some

of these artists got some wild stories some interesting stories out there yeah I feel like that

it adds to the art though right well for sure people ask me what my favorite artists as I said you

know I probably Bernini and Michelangelo Bernini was actually did work after Michelangelo but if

you understand the artist and when I got these licenses to do these originals from those molds

made a hundred years ago I studied Michelangelo actually went to the Casabone Rotten Museum and

actually got access to the arch I actually saw the contract of the David contract of when he

got commissioned to do it no way but what's amazing is if you understand the artist and what they

believed and how they're what they what they stood for Michelangelo to be into his 80s and he was

a artist of hope and inspiration he wasn't some negative artist and he taught trained it

teach and and it was just amazing what he could do but he was an architect he was a painter as sculptor

and if you look today people don't sculpt like that they don't carve David statues or Piatas or

Centaur statues or like Bernini so that it's I love that Baroque Renaissance spirit just because I

know how hard it would have been to do that to carve that out of career marble it's spectacular

but listen I love all artwork and again whether it's a stage coach or a mermaid or a piece we have

an artist named Bill Toma that was a Disney imaginer this amazing Nudes and Dragons I thought

I had a chance to buy this collection on the entire set it's like who's gonna buy dragons

we we make we I can't even build them fast enough people love these beautiful dragons and these

spectacular Harlequin Nudes that are like these Mardi Gras Nudes with they're just spectacular

pieces but look we love artwork my whole team and staff at Treasure Investments Corporation loves

it and we always look for new talent and we find somebody we like we get behind it and really

promote and go crazy nice how much does a Michelangelo piece from these days well the David statue

which is near finished is the world's first billion dollar art asset whoa it was appraised by

three different appraisers it's hard to get a comp on that you know you can't even buy a Michelangelo

the Piatas been appraised at 170 million dollars in silver it's one of one wow and just for you

know look the marble was done 500 years ago he made that the Pope commissioned molds to be made

on top of it because the new war was coming a disaster that thing falls over it's gonna turn into

glass it's just going to shatter into a million pieces so a famous foundry and Florence was

commissioned to create these as the national archive of Italian art and artifacts that was there

for preservation and protection these these Italian treasures it's those molds that we tapped

bought the license to do one of a kind in precious metals whether it be platinum gold or silver

and when you use the actual mold and they're not copies or replicas or surmolages if they're

from that actual mold made directly on top of that marble they're considered a posthumous original

because it's by the hand of the art it's untouched by anybody else Donna so these posthumously cast

are their priceless the piazza 170 we have southern other pieces that are in that range we have

a spectacular collection of pure silver mechalange we did one called the Belveder torso by an artist

named Apalinius and now the David is nearing completion it'll be done in about 60 days and as the

eighth wonder of the modern art world and it's a 17 feet tall and pure silver it's actually

unbelievable how is it the foundry the other day it's like oh my gosh so it's really extraordinary

what we're doing right now and it's a new alternative asset class these are spectacular pieces and a

trea it's a true treasure down these in precious metals that is cool so the eighth wonder so there's

what art wonders you know we've been that's what all the appraisers said this is the eighth wonder

of the modern world is to do the day but no one even believed by the way you could do it let alone

and precious metal yeah um you know people said there's no way you can I've heard 10,000 there's

no way you can't get it you can't prove it's real you can't do it it's too much silver you can't

pour it just the engineering behind designing these things in that metal you can't silver is not

like casting bronze you have to have oregon there's all kinds of crazy things but you'll before we

sat out and spent I mean tens of millions of dollars building these pieces we had to get the

provenance to show these really artwork and how do you know that the piazza is the piazza that's

actually came from the mobile they head of my board member of my board is the director and curator

of the museum of Michelangelo in Florence Italy that personally inspected those well so we have

empirical provenance they are listed in the official catalog resonate and we have you can't contest

that these aren't true and genuine they came from the actual plasters made nearly a hundred years

ago so that was a very important part of it but it's just special to do these things to have you

walk into our museum it's like you're it's like beaming it you actually walk out of there like with a

high for a high there's so much energy whether it's coming from the artwork or just the whole museum

but you walk out of there like you're literally intoxicated in a good way it's just you've got

you know hundreds of thousands of ounces of pure silver and the greatest form of artists in the

world and it's looking at it's just it's almost it creates an emotional effect that can't explain

people walk up we unveiled I unveiled that piazza a few years ago here in Vegas with Steve Forbes

and when we unveiled it on national television it blanked out the cameras we don't know

how that happened why did out the cameras and people right up to it and they collapsed

was waiting in tears like I've never seen anything like it so that that that transcends time and space

that was a really cool moment so I have to look back like wow that's amazing I didn't expect that

that I was I expect a lot but that was pretty cool that's insane you think it was from all the

silver I think it's just the message you know that's Mary holding the crucified Christ so there's

a spiritual connection to that piece but that the bullion and just the glimmering shine on all the

lights it was just spectacular it's just it radiates energy I can't explain it I mean I can't even

explain that make art great because I feel like like you said earlier with my generation there's

not that same appreciation you know there's not you know I'm down there I was it again art

basil and I was there why I went through the art exhibition I'm like wow some of this stuff's

kind of off the charts factors the big sign says do not show a reaction to this artwork or you'll

be kicked out immediately so you know I'm walking by and some of this stuff's you know interesting

I I don't want to knock any other artist but wow how is it it was interesting but yeah but listen

you know artworks got to have meaning and purpose people buy artwork from me because it makes

them feel good I had a guy walk up to a show as that two years ago and Scottsdale and a wheelchair

old guy and he walked up and I had this 10 foot tall polished Ferrari stallion and his wife

he looked as if he was you want that she goes why because because it makes me feel good and he

handed me his credit card I love that people buy art because it makes them feel good I buy

art where I go into galleries and say well that's really cool I I want it so you have to buy it

if you like it and that's that's kind of the message behind that so art basil was fun but I got

to meet a lot of young generational artists that were just in there doing their thing whether it's

graffiti artwork or whatever they were doing and I love it because most of what I saw was

original and I like people that have their own concepts and ideas yeah because a lot of people

do try to copy right yeah we get that all the time you know it's like you know there's a gentleman

named Alex Monopoly yeah he actually got I guess there was a complaint because he never got

permission now there'll be high time and he got the license but I'm a client I buy I buy his work

yeah and he's down there having a fun painting all these fun things and it's that's he's

in original he did that and now he's putting it on airplane parts brilliant it's great he's

first to market and it's original artists that are like that get after it can really mix and

really good headwinds and get in there do really well yeah shut out to Alec I know his brother

or cousin Avery yeah no he's great I bought one of his little Donald ducks and all kinds of fun

stuff so yeah he's a great great great artist original I love what he does and he's got a great

great career in front of him yeah do we talk about the presidential sculpture yeah well look yeah

so we did a piece that was presented to the Trump family that's at the Mar-a-Lago it's the

gold official gold eagle the presidential american patriot I actually commissioned an artist Lorenzo

Gileary to do the piece we built it together I made he I made a studio in 2006 and I said I got

an idea it's like what's the idea I said well look in the back of a one dollar bill there's that there's

an eagle clutching arrows and there's that olive branch I thought wouldn't that be cool to make

that in a sculpture he said oh it's a terrible idea so he that's just the artist I said he goes

look Mark I'll make you the best eagle in the world but you have to make the scroll I said me so

I spent the summer in his studio in Aurora organ and we built that piece and it became one of our

top sellers so very exciting but it's the eagle clutching the arrows olive branch on Oracle

one of the United States Constitution and it's been just a great piece it's the symbolic of our

country and the meaning of you know it's just spectacular and we did that we have it eight

feet tall we have them in bronze we have it in very sizes we have those on a lot of cruise ships

in all the countries popular selling piece and then we did one in gold and we presented that to

President Trump at Mar-a-Lago and just recently was presented one to him it's now in the Oval Office

wow so that's a special thing and it was fun it's there if you so if you look over if you're

looking at him over his left shoulder there's a gold eagle in that quarter I carried it in there

with myself actually believe it or not it was supposed to go to the crown prince and he ended up

getting a piece but bronze and Trump says I want to keep this for me this is this is gorgeous let's

keep it here I said the great idea let's put it right over there in fact by president my

count by Jason Dilling said we should put it right underneath his left window and sure enough

that's where we put it so it's there and we're gonna do another piece on the other side so he'll

be flanked by two goals and the other one I did myself which is a lot of fun wow let's call

the America's anniversary celebrating the 250th birthday of our country it's an eagle on top of

the Liberty Bell with the flag kind of wrapped around it's a really cool piece must be such an

incredible moment for you because you had really humble beginnings and now your artwork is in the

oval office you know yes I did I came from nothing and I had a tough childhood you know and

you know I had three jobs and I was 10 years old that was I was 10 years old I had a paper

route I it was a sweeper boy for a drugstore and made 10 bucks a week and 50 cents a day with

the paper and then I had a lawnmower and I had my mowed lawns in the summer and what I made I had

and what I didn't what I had my mom would take so she would take it for grocery so look I know

what it takes to make a dollar and if I wanted something it was me that was going to be able to

attain it I wasn't going to get it from somebody else so I had that growing up and that was an

interesting lesson at a very very young age but I've always had I've always wanted more in life

and not just money I wanted to be healthy happy spiritually all of those things kind of a well

balanced wheel and I've had a chance to talk to a lot of school kids and high school students

talking about goal setting and how to overcome things that are nearly impossible because I've been

up and down I've had some great successes in my life and crashed and burned many times over my

lifetime and it's interesting to make it and then not have it you know you know at least I knew

how to make it and I could always make it if you could take it all away again it's fine to take it

away I'll get it back because I know how to get there I know the path that you have to take and

it's not an easy path but I've been through some trials and tribulations and understand the value

of a dollar and what it takes to actually get there yeah I've I've made and lost it all twice already

at 28 I'm grateful for it because you could get caught up and and comfortable I think oh yeah I

mean look I've been taken advantage of I made him I invested in many I've had 17 companies and some

of them didn't work out so well no I'm lost you know fortunes and you know I had a lot of them

I've had thousands of people work for me over the years and well you know a lot of them are still

with me now but you know look you life's full of interesting things you have to learn from your

mistakes and but I'm all about goal setting and I love goal setting and building things and dreaming

big and I have a lot of unique stings and a certain methodology and how to get there it's it's

pretty successful actually yeah yeah now you got a top three most valuable art collection in the world

we are fortunate yes we've built what we believe is now in the top three most valuable private art

collections in the entire world yeah we have over 4,000 original masterpieces in our museum

wow and it's comprised of master drawings oil paintings acrylics by masters many bronzes artists

by Bernini and Jean-Belonia, Deletano, Canova, Michelangelo I mean the greatest artist and these are

not replicas they are true posthumous originals and yeah we're really we're really honored and proud

and so it's really exciting yeah it's awesome proud of man so I guess at this level what's what's

the goal now like do you want to be number one or I kind of think we are but I don't want to

you know some friends of mine that have some other art collections but listen we're growing

the collection will continue to grow but it's amazing because when we got this license to do these

from those original molds to create these it's like Michelangelo Michelangelo is still producing

so we're doing some other works these called the the rebel slaves and some other pieces by

Bernini is a piece that Bernini needed called the David we'll do that in pure silver the

pharniacicolis by glycos will do that in pure silver so these it's literally like having Jackson

Pollock making another Jackson Pollock because we've accessed those plaster molds and we could do a

posthumous original pure silver it's like Jackson Pollock's making a new Jackson Pollock that

access to that mold is is the are the keys to the kingdom for us and we're the only ones that

can do it in precious metals so we think the value of the collection will double in 36 months to triple

whole and now we're making it available to where people can buy into some of these pieces on

fractionally and not just own a piece of it but you know the each piece of the artwork itself there's

a piece called the battle the centaur by Michelangelo's spectacular piece it's actually the only

sculpture ever kept to his entire life and it's still in the museum of Casabona Rote which is the

house of Michelangelo and Florence that we did in pure silver is a one of a kind and if you buy

into that fractionally not only do you own a piece of it and you get that appreciative value which

is going up but it's also its own cash engine there's six different yields that that will produce

and revenue streams for the owner of that piece so wow that opens it up to where anybody could

actually own a part of these great masters which is we're we're revolutionizing that right now we're

very excited about that yeah it does seem like fractional ownership is a is a because it's so

expensive to buy this yeah I mean it's 45 million dollars for that one's piece but you can buy

into it for five thousand dollars and on a part of a Michelangelo and all of the benefits that come

from that ownership so that's a spectacular thing yeah and before in the past that's never been a

thing right no I mean there's there's a company out there that's doing fractional ownership and

there's people that you could fractionize baseball teams or a race horse and they're successful

they're great models revolutionary and we're doing that but taking it to the next level where

there's not just ownership there's yields and that that position you buy becomes free trading so

not only do you get the benefit of that ownership but the position that you buy becomes free

trading and then there's other dividend yields and revenue streams from that ecoosphere from that

one particular asset so that's pretty it's exciting and we're spearheading that right now all

along with that AI you were opening up a new art leasing division where people can for the first

time lease sculptures it doesn't exist there's two expensive one but all of those art assets you

could literally rent a multi-million dollar art collection sculptures for a few thousand

dollars a month who wouldn't ride it off who wouldn't want to have that and then also have the

immersive experience every time you walk by the artist pops up and tells you why he made that artwork

so we're going to roll that out this year we're also excited about that because we're anticipating

a really successful big New York Stock Exchange IPO for the company treasure investments this year

so we're excited about that leasing art that's a great idea because it establishes credibility if

you get up some nice artwork where you're working you know sure it's scalable and you know again

there's nobody doing it would be like the we're the only company in the world that would be providing

statuary on only spaces that have really reasonable rate whether you're a dental office or a doctor

or you have a beautiful lobby like your building here's great building yeah a void of art you know

let's fill it full some only cool pieces like you said art is very inspiring like when I was around

that dolly piece like it inspired me yeah dolly was a master yeah so being around art like that I

just tell it would help me that's yeah that's 2000 a month no brainer nothing you get it right

it off and and we know it's it's fun there's a lot of little perks to come with that program we're

putting together right now yeah let me know when that's off um have you had the same success in other

industries because I know you got other businesses yeah look you know I've been a successful

real estate developer I'm a pilot I fly helicopters and I fly over land untraditionally unconventionally

I buy usually property just outside the urban growth boundaries mostly timberlands

um big tracks hundred acres to thousand acre blocks and then I do light infrastructure um you know

it but aesthetics gated entrances timber frame water features and and then I usually sell the

properties after that I also own a storage company where we sell twice the space for half the price

so we're getting people affordability if you will and so would you mean you pay a thousand dollars

for a you haul rent you could rent one of our 40 foot 2500 square feet for just 250 bucks a month

so we're doing affordable storage spaces it's again about a quarter of really what it costs and

we're rolling out that out nation wide that's not that's my weekend joys and how did you

identify that that market that that was a good you know look so it's just in anything I see things

I like wow there's an opportunity there so um you know my brother uses rental store I say wow

you're saying how much for that like why don't you just put a 40 foot cargo container on the ground

and just rent one of those out so we started looking at that and people with rental

storages they they spend all this money for infrastructure pay thing they have to wait for

permits all we need is a flat piece of ground a fence and then a 40 foot railroad container box

because there's no permitting it's a mobile platform so you get out of all of those permitting

processes and we started our one of our locations we had it up and running in 90 days that's

insanity and the ROI is 100% annually that's insane so it's it is you know you you're lucky if you get

a place it'll make five to seven percent annually yeah that's for real estate yeah and you can't

because they have to they have to finance the land they have to pay for permits they have to build

all that infrastructure we just buy the boxes drop them paint them up and boom we're ready to go

and it's it's all automated so we've made it I think for people that really need storage

that are having you know challenging times they can rent one of ours and say about ton of money

and have safe it's secure stuff with their private property it's very exciting we're

going to roll out nationwide I wonder if housing is going to head that way too you know probably

because it's so expensive though now it is yeah it is it's really expensive you know everything's

expensive I look back at what I could buy for a dollar just a few years ago it's like wait a

second the money is getting divided you know cash is getting killed it's down 10% from last year

$100 is down so that's worth 90 cents right now dollars were 90 cents so so yeah that's you know

part of why we do a lot of stuff in precious metals we did really well on our precious metal sculptures

yeah that was one up like what 20% loss here silver one up a hundred and seven hundred seventy

I did gold doubled yeah gold double yeah silver is it hovering right around eighty dollars

announced right now we know a year ago it was it was 30 bucks wow I gotta get some metal yeah so we

we like that we do a lot of our silver castings our patriotic pieces and pure silver we have a

bullet bear we do the usually thousand ounce castings and but it's really fun to bring those things

when you transpose that raw bullion into a form of a beautiful piece of art records fun and you get

a good denominator on it so it's kind of exciting for us to produce those pieces wow did you see

metals rising like this or was it kind of just like a good timing you know I started selling

silver statues when I was in New Orleans in 1987 and I had a little elephant and I had a little

eagle and silver and people just loved it they love the metal it's beautiful it's different

than the traditional bronze and but it's it's fun but you know a lot of people right now are

gravitating towards color in fact we're working on a license with the Remington Museum in New York

you know the Frederick Remington the Bucking Broncos are great pieces and they want us to produce

some form but bring them to color and full and full life color so we're actually going to bring

those Remington they're not like those black patinas that are like just I call them dairy queen

dipped cones they're beautiful but there's no color when you bring them to life it adds a different

level of I think excitement so we're gonna be doing that with the Remington Museum bringing all

of the Remington pieces to life in real vibrant colors yeah it's exciting so we're look we're we

love the art world we're in it we love to do new things work with people artists and promote

build and merges this is the tip of the iceberg for us so we're gonna continue to produce great

pieces from the great masters and precious metals we're gonna be doing some pieces in pure gold

which is really exciting but again to and then to bring that immersive experience for people can

really understand what they're looking at to not just walk by a piece and go buy it but to really

leave like wow I know why you mean that's amazing and when you understand that it does have a

much more impactful emotional value to you when you look at an artwork it does inspire people for sure

you walk by the museum you walk out you have 10 different ideas of doing something for your own

self I mean it's just fun stuff Bob Ross did that the guy with the big bridge yeah legend that guy's

legendary I used to watch his videos I'd still do he's great they're so calm and they're wonderful

that she a pet they're relaxing it's therapy I love it he was a good artist he was original he was

that guy was brilliant sadly it was taken from him but that's not by being a business person he got

I think had a little bit they're sadly but you know but fun artist great idea it was original

which was why he was so successful at the time you own any of his paintings I don't but I just

saw that his first painting sold for $400,000 something you know you could do but but we do have

the Bob Ross painting kit in our studio oh yeah my kids and I like play we have fun around we

did we we we play with that he was great because he made it seem like you could get into art

you did it the joy of painting and he literally showed you had a paint trees and seascapes and

mountains and it's fun that was a really fun thing and it's the creative process it makes people

feel good it's relaxing it's therapy I really enjoy it's fun stuff absolutely you've also had a

lot of impact with charity you donated over $100 million we have look yeah we've done a lot we

started the business model on 1998 and funny I was at a neurosurgeon called me and said

Mark you got those two eagles fighting over Sam I said yeah he goes I want to donate it to a

charity I said oh okay so I sell him the piece and he said hey can you put together a reader board

of the artist with the pope and like McGill Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan I said yeah sure

and he goes good because I'm gonna donate it to this charity and you want to go I said sure I'll

go so I I sell the sculpture to this doctor he donated to this charity and I watched the bidding

it's you know and the piece was a 20,000 dollar sculpture yeah of course I didn't sell it to him for

I made it for less than that because that was a good price for me yeah and I watched this thing

sell for 63,000 dollars but it's not that it sold for 60 it was like 5 10 20 30 40 50 55 and it was

20 different bidders that hit this thing over 50,000 dollars I was like wait a second

I said there's a million bucks 20 people bid on that eagle over 50,000 dollars that's that's a

million dollars with a concentrated buying power on one sculpture that they had no idea to be bidding

I thought wow human behavior 101 so I go imagine I was like wait a second gosh I have all this

access to all this great artwork what if I built a business model where I donated artwork to a charity

with some formula there could be something there well nine months from that date I had a

hundred and seventy two employees and I was donating a thousand to three thousand statues in

month to charity wow and we were making millions a month it was amazing and but as makes as we

were making we were giving that much away so the model was if you were having a fundraising charity

event for whatever cause you believed in we would provide you access to a treasury of beautiful

artwork whether it's a golfer or a ballerina or whatever it is wildlife that you and we would

chip it to you free of charge give you all the material simply place it in your event and we split

the revenue 50 50 wow and a lot of times they said well why don't you just give it just if I give it

to you I have no way of being able to do it again it it stops there but getting something back we

make a little bit but I can perpetuate it and have more artwork for you next year really I

stopped counting at 60,000 auctions and at a hundred million raised for nonprofits that is such a

brilliant model because the win win it was a win win and you know what's amazing is is we raised

money for people that needed it American cancer dorm beckers boys got to the America boys in

girl codes fill harmonic kidney found I mean you cannot believe the nonprofits wildlife preservation

charities that needed that money and we got it I mean I mean we said one piece one little golfer

they sold for a hundred grand we had a lot a hundred thousand dollar pieces sell and they got money

that was precious it's half of something for nothing yes we got some money back but it allowed us to

continue to grow that treasury of artwork to continue to give to those nonprofits and we do it to

this day it's raised I we stopped counting but it's just no it's phenomenal it creates revenue that

otherwise wouldn't been there for the people that needed and it's just a phenomenal phenomenal thing

I'm just really honored I just I went to my first charity auction Steve Aoki if you know him he's

like a EDM artist but I'll tell him about this maybe you guys can work yeah like again if there's

an event that we can be helpful for and be there we will provide access to our treasury of

spectacular pieces and provide them at no charge and when they sell we whatever they sell for from

dollar one we share 50 50 and it usually works out really well for everybody that is brilliant you're

good I coming up with these interesting business models I see opportunities in a lot of things you

know whether it's a real estate company or buying raw land or you know storage companies but my

passion is the art world and I love it I've had great successes and great failures in it too you

know I made some big mistakes on I bought a robotics company and 3d scanning and we had millions

of hours with the printers but I couldn't scale that part of that business model so you know you

learn by those mistakes but we finally found kind of the legs of the table that are strong yeah all

of our profit centers and it's really exciting what we're doing now especially with our we build three

or four monumental projects a week that's pieces that are life-sider whether they're battling elk or

a 60 foot eagle we do three or four massive monument projects every week and whether there's

something that we create or it's your idea I get commissions all the time can you build this like

yeah sure we could do it for you no problem and that that's fun because we get to take your

vision and turn it into reality if you want something spectacular or whether it's a wildlife

image or it could be for anything really your logo for your company we can be happy to do that for

you and again it brings your vision to reality and we produce that really fast and it works out of

to do that's fine that's that's the creative process that I love so much I know with the

monuments you said earlier a lot of pressure right if it falls it's going to shatter has that

happened well that's the marble master this is that's an adic at our stuff industry you could

drop it off the empire state building it's not gonna really they're tough that we build we build

big grizzly bears in fact we sold 30 to 12 foot grizzly bears to a car wash company in Seattle so

if you ever there's the those bronze bears we both those but those are pretty tough okay bronze

yeah they're they're heavy they weigh tons and tons but but yeah no the marble pieces in those

museums those are the reason why pious had the commissions done in the 20s and early 30s was

because of looming war and disaster if those things fall over and if the David fell over and hit

the ground it would shatter into a million pieces that artwork is lost forever the only way to

preserve and protect it is to lay a plaster with there's a negative of the positive that negative

is it the founder that we have the license with in Florence Italy which is special other than your

museum what are your favorite art museums I like the archaeological museum in Naples Italy okay

because it's all the unearthed artifacts from hercolanium aircolonial and Pompeii the eruption

about usuvius and whether they're furniture or dental instruments or artwork and we have all

of those pieces by the way when I bought that foundry in Naples and all of those artwork 1600

different pieces we have surgical tools from thousands of years ago little dental we're actually

making shadow boxes right now of all those surgical instruments and what they use with what you

did not want to go to the dentist 2000 I've actually seen videos of like how they did cavity

removals yeah I mean yeah yeah I would not want to have to see the dentist back then I think

that's a beautiful and I've walked the streets of Pompeii and seeing the frescoes on the walls and

that's that's that's amazing that when that thing buried that pyroclastic flow buried that city

it preserved at froze time and in space and that artwork we have I think that museum in Naples

is spectacular because you get to see the eruption you get to walk the city and you get to see

those marble masterpieces what I've actually stolen by Napoleon is 14 foot statue of the Hercules

just unbelievable wow and he stole that he stole it he took it to France and then it was returned

to the museum afterwards he also stole the bruise bandana too but he liked to steal stuff

Napoleon but but you know those artworks are you walking to that museum and see all these beautiful

pieces in marble and then you see the artwork and that's what I think that's one my favorite yeah

I got to get out that I've never been to Italy actually my favorite is my museum but yeah that's

why I said the archeological museum in Naples is probably my second best pick yeah in the Vatican

because you can't that's just amazing there so they have a museum in the Vatican well the Vatican

itself is the is the museum is the Vaticano it's the sistine chapel and all of that is just

spectacular I mean all the works by Bernini and Michelangelo and Raphael and Rubens those are

those the paintings and the artwork on there is it's that's the most spectacular

collective artwork that exists on the face of the earth and can never be rivaled yeah I really

love history that was always my favorite class it's amazing you know when you like when you dig

into these artists and when we're doing these in silver you learn who they were do you understand

the history that's it it adds more meaning at least for me and you know so it's it's a it's a

fun thing I'm really into it tuned with things that are really exciting and we're going to bring

that to life we actually have a chance to do some things with a big me I can't say the museum but

there's a very famous museum in in South Beach and we're negotiating with them to bring a permanent

display or at least a 36 month exhibition to South Beach to bring these pieces of life with that

immersive AI experience where people cannot just see the artwork but actually I understand the

meaning behind it what's your opinion on I know AI and art there's like mixed things about it

well I think that a lot of the artists were like these vangos start coming to life and that's

the interesting I mean it some of the critics say oh it takes away from the meaning it's like

whatever look I you know the paintings the painting you can never going to take with that but if

you actually get a talk to the artist and understand that and the artist comes the air that's cool

because you can learn something now they're taking these paintings and they're more

thing and where I saw this really cool thing where these all the vangos they're they see that

paying and then it starts coming to life and the people start walking off the canvas that's

that's okay I mean that's cool I think it's kind of cool but critics go no my gosh you're stealing

the spear and the soul of like that it's okay it's and that's fine but I like it because you can

actually interact with the artist the AI takes all the known data on that artist and it

composes that where you can like understand why vango did those paintings what was right the

meaning and purpose behind that so for me I like AI because I can talk to you about why I made

the anniversary piece for America I'm a I'm a patron I love our country so if I'm not there but

wouldn't that be cool if you could talk to me about why I made that sculpture why I commissioned

an artist to do a piece or talk to Larry and Gilly area to see why you made this spectacular stage

coach but I think going back in history when you can talk to Bernini in his likeness and understand

that so we're working on that so you actually it's specific to that piece so you can say why what

when did you finish that pizza why did how long did it take you why would you know what do you

think about being it done in silver and if you understand it he wanted to perpetuate his artwork

for him it was okay to share and teach and learn so that is a very important thing with provenance

of understanding the artist intent he wanted to share his artwork with others and was happy about

letting other people learn his methodology and how he did it but so that isn't thought people

don't learn that in school today I don't even know I don't even know what these kids learning

is it's different stuff so really art I'm trying to bring that back this is a revival of the

Renaissance and artwork where you get to see the material object itself but get all that AI

immersive experience that really I think this it's an exponentiator it's a force multiplier yeah

Renaissance it sounds like that's your favorite art period I mean that's tough to beat that look

you know I'd like all kinds of artwork I love some abstraction and stuff some of the stuff gimmicky

you know I won't say what you know but bananas to duct tape to a thing where you eat it you know

that's it's funny and all that but you know that's does that appear to know I'm I didn't just

doesn't compare I'm sorry you know what do you think of a Banksy I just went to his museum in

Australia I believe Brisbane he's original eggs he's original and I listen my hats off to him

brilliant I mean the the things he comes up with when he did that painting and it was it shredded

yeah it's genius that guys I mean he used to go into museums and hang his artwork up in museums

and sneak out I mean that's like that's next level stuff I mean he deserves everything he gets

in a good way because he's original I love originality I don't care what the subject matter is

as long as it's got something it's positive right but when artists are original like Banksy it's

not his real name I know his real name but that guy's a brilliant guy genius yeah I I'm so

fasting with the marketing behind it how he's anonymous and I feel like that it's it's a great

thing yes I've never seen an artistate that approach you know it's it's brilliant I mean it's

wonderful I mean his stuff pops up and he's got these little you know I mean wherever he is it's

always a surprise so well thought well done and I love his artwork yeah I love his artwork you own

any of his I I had some pieces in my museum that we thought maybe were maybe no but you know it is

what it is it's okay they're not there anymore does that happen often in our world like oh yeah

especially with modern artwork you know we've had a little taste of that ourselves where we thought

something might have been what it was and it wasn't so you know very care you got to be careful

with the monor art work you know everything we have now we've proven validated authenticated

empirical provenance but sadly for artists like Banksy as tell it as he is there's people out there

that are that are counterfeiting that stuff because he's anonymous he can't even announce not

it's fake they have a way it's I forgot what it's called they have it's pest control they have a

validation oh they do yes and you can show your artwork and they'll send it in and they'll validate

it for you okay which is brilliant by the way and I think it's called pest control and we've

actually had some artwork in our museum that we ran through and it came back what we didn't think

of what it was and it's like okay so we got out of there immediately but at the end of the day

artist like Banksy because he's so original he will be copied and a lot of other artists Jackson

Paul like Mark Rothko Keith Haring these all these guys are getting copied sad it's a sad story

because they were they were brilliant they were original and they're being copied by people that

aren't have bad ethics it's a sad deal this sucks because you're spending all this money and then

it's a fake it is it's tough I mean you know and even now it's like authenticators maybe so maybe

I can't say yes and so so you get these you pay all this money for authentication and no one will

really say I can't sure you know even if it's real they'll say oh maybe so I mean like it's like okay

so because they don't want to get sued if it ends up being fake you know there's so much I mean

people even some of the big biggest art dealers in New York selling what they thought were

original uh Jackson Pollux and like oh now they're not so you know what fact a lot of the artwork

in museums they're they say that they'll they're not getting them carbon-dated or spectral analysis

that I've had that done on some paintings in our museum we had we hired one of the number one

authenticators in the world and well everything matched up but there's like one color of paint that

didn't quite match the earth like huh so at the end of the day you look at all the Jackson Pollux

that are out in those museums if you ran all those things through real analysis oh I would not want

to they wouldn't let you do it now not to say that they're not I don't want to put anything like

out that out there but you know with now they have some really advanced ways of identifying the

paint the year of the dates that that's been a lot of those people's like no now it's here

this will just leave it alone yeah and I respect that but sadly those artists geniuses as they were

there are people that have bad ethics that are out there making them that are not genuine which

is a sad story because that hurts everybody yeah my mentor had to hire FBI forensic investigators to

verify his artwork yeah like it it's intense it is it is because you never know what people are

trying to sell these no that's not so good thing for us we've got for our product right now it's

we authenticated it's in the official catalog resume and their sculptures and it's exciting so we're

excited about that and yeah we're we're just really stabbed behind our product and all the things

that we do we have 2700 different images of artwork from 231 artists and we sell them all worldwide

and again whether we actually did it really I actually did a big bitcoins statue oh yeah big bronze

gorgeous big big corner I did a bit I I my crypto portfolio isn't doing quite what it should be

but I do have a really cool bronze bitcoins statue yeah Bitcoin was a wow who would have thought

no it's amazing $100,000 now it's it's just crazy I mean it was like a $100 what 15 years ago

it was a sense yeah I mean you know I think it kicked off in 07 and now that's one of the greatest

climbs of value I've ever seen in mind that's brilliant that's genius I mean who are the

guy that thought that up I mean that's just unbelievable we created that's just I mean it's

almost hard to comprehend how somebody could put that together now a lot of people are buying art

with they want with crypto sure yeah we accept crypto too for our collections which is exciting too

now yeah yeah well mark this was great dude I can't wait to see your museum in Washington one

to oh yeah it's it's a private museum we opened it up for appointment only and we were happy to

show it it's it's amazing it's over 4,000 original masterpieces wow it's spectacular it will take

your breath away I think it rivals many museums in Europe and we're really honored to be able to

curate that collection and continue to grow it I love it how else can people support you find you

oh I've got an Instagram site I'm not very good with that but it's mark russo dot t.i.c and

we have you know well on youtube and we do a lot of shows we actually were going down to the

Big Barrett Jackson auto event we're down there one of the platinum sponsors for that we have a

huge exhibition there and we have a lot of our monuments there and iconic car symbols and bronze

and polished metals that's in Scottsdale Arizona 17th through the 25th of January then we're going

to a really big fun wildlife preservation event in Nashville Tennessee Safari Club International

we'll have a really big exhibition there but we have 120 gallery partners and across America about

listen we we love what we do we're excited we love to help encourage and support other artists

we're we love philanthropy and supporting charities that need the resources and we're there and we're

proud to stand behind that beautiful guys get some art that's the moral of episode from me

check out stuff out guys we'll link everything in the video thanks for watching peace thank you

i hope you guys are enjoying the show please don't forget to like and subscribe it

helps the show a lot with the algorithm thank you