Transcript: Cold Take Ep. 16 on R.C. Horsch, a stolen bronze faun and fair week

Adam Schrader and Colton Crews recorded the 16th episode of Cold Take, Urgent Matter's weekly art-news podcast, on September 30, days after New York's fall art fairs closed.

Crews opens with R.C. Horsch, a Philadelphia erotic photographer who died in 2025. Police have since linked seven missing women to his former home.

The hosts look through Horsch's photo books and e-books on Amazon, and Schrader asks whether covering his work would only raise its profile after his death.

Crews then brings up the Broken Simulation podcast's take on Sergio Furnari's Charlie Kirk statue in Times Square. That leads to Alfred Lepère's bronze faun, stolen from the Amiens zoo in 1993 and identified by the Art Loss Register after an auction house asked it to check the sculpture's provenance.

The faun is back at the Musée de Picardie. The hosts talk through what it takes to prove ownership of an object, starting with Crews' handmade drums.

In a rapid-fire round, Schrader explains how New York City's 2025 mayoral turnout inspired the Nasher Museum's "Turn the volume up!" and how a 50% U.S. tariff on Canadian-made art hung over a quiet Armory Show.

He also describes his favorite booth at Spring/Break, where Alice Herbert hung her own redacted arrest report beside self-portraits she made while wearing an ankle monitor.

Crews closes the round by pointing listeners to Schrader's story on Mamie Green's dance adaptation of Sam Shepard's Fool for Love in an Ace Hotel room.

Listen to the episode on Spotify.

This transcript was generated by A.I. from the episode audio and edited by Urgent Matter for clarity. It may contain errors. Check the audio before quoting. Passages the hosts read aloud from Amazon reviews are summarized in brackets, and bracketed editor's notes add context.