Salvador Dalí apparently conned Yoko Ono

Salvador Dalí once conned Yoko Ono

A quirky story often told about Salvador Dalí claims that in 1969, Yoko Ono offered him $10,000 for one of his famous mustache hairs. Allegedly wary of occult intentions, Dalí instead sent her a blade of grass. While the tale is debated, it fits neatly into Dalí's eccentric public image and his later-life reputation for turning playful stunts into profitable moments.

Fascinating facts about Salvador Dalí

Salvador Dalí wasn’t just a famous surrealist painter, he was a master of spectacle. Known for leaving restaurant sketches as payment and believing he was his late brother’s reincarnation, Dalí blurred the line between art and persona. He even collaborated with Walt Disney on an experimental short, shelved for decades before its 2003 release.

Salvador Dalí’s remains were exhumed for a paternity test

Years after Dalí’s death in 1989, fortune teller Pilar Abel filed a suit claiming she was the child of an affair Dalí had with her mother. In 2017, Dalí’s body was exhumed for testing. Dalí was not the father, but the artist’s mustache remained intact decades after his passing.

In 2023, a Dalí painting was purchased from a house clearing sale for $200

"Vecchio Sultano," a 1966 work by Salvador Dalí, was sold in a house clearance sale in the UK in 2023.

Why Orwell called Dalí a 'disgusting human being'

Writer George Orwell took offense at the disturbing actions described in Dalí's salacious autobiography "The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí." In a 1944 essay, Orwell described the cruelty and moral degradation of Dalí—while also admitting the artist's undeniable talent.

Salvador Dalí believed he was his own dead brother, who had died nine months before he was born

Salvador Dalí and Coco Chanel bonded over art and fashion

In the late 1930s, Chanel hosted the eccentric artist to like and work in her home. Despite their differing styles, the two icons collaborated, and Chanel even inspired Dalí to mimic her perfume in his artwork.

Salvador Dalí had pet anteaters he (supposedly) took on walks

Known for his adept and weird public relations stunts, Dalí kept exotic pets, such as an ocelot named Babou, as well as anteaters. The insectivorous mammal accompanied him on walks (though it may have just been for a photo op) and on talk show appearances.

Banksy once sold his highly valued artwork on the street for $60

The notorious (and anonymous) street artist has a history of sending up the art world's pretensions. In 2013, he sold his artwork, valued at approximately $20K per piece, for $60 on a New York street. Some unassuming, but apparently aesthetically discerning, patrons took home world-renowned work that day at a steep discount.

In 1945, Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí and legendary animator Walt Disney began collaborating on a short film that was not completed until 2003, years after both men had died.

A life measured on the backs of coffee receipts

Years ago, a storyteller doodled on the back of a receipt. Hundreds of doodles later, Odding Wang has created a digital diary with a tactile feel. Click through the project's website to peruse the portals into Wang's life and mind. Hovering over a comic will reveal the receipt on the other side.

The strange 1966 meet-up between Bob Dylan and John Lennon

The 1972 documentary "Eat The Document" featured a short clip of this interaction between the two stars, who'd become friends. The extended cut, though, shows the tension at the heart of their relationship, which was close to an artistic rivalry. Lennon was self-conscious that critics claimed his more serious turn was inspired by Dylan; Dylan, meanwhile, was annoyed by a comment Lennon had made earlier that week about his song "Forth Time Around" sounding like a copy of The Beatles' "Norwegian Wood."

In 1969, one British taxi driver stole a Goya from the National Gallery in London

Francisco de Goya's portrait "The Duke of Wellington" was believed to be seized by a criminal mastermind. In reality, a 60-something cabby named Kempton Bunton confessed to the crime about four years later. In 2021, it was revealed that he was actually covering for the actions of his son. The heist has since been immortalized in the film "The Duke."

Mark Rothko demanded a high-end restaurant remove his paintings

The artist was commissioned to paint murals for a Four Seasons restaurant on the ground floor of New York's Seagram Building. After attending the restaurant, he demanded his paintings be taken down and agreed to return his $35K payment, saying, “anybody who will eat that kind of food for those kind of prices will never look at a painting of mine.”

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

Ray Dalio credits much of his success to his transcendental meditation practice

Dalio took up transcendental meditation after learning that The Beatles practiced it on a trip to India in 1968. He says the practice allows him to clear his mind, be more creative, and unlock his subconscious.

O'Keeffe's flowers are one of her most famous—and most misunderstood—motifs

Both critics and fans alike believed O'Keeffe's flower paintings were of female genitalia, though the artist never welcomed that interpretation. Part of the reason was that Freudian analysis was popular at the time they were first exhibited. Another was that her partner, Alfred Stieglitz, along with others in the art world, insisted on her work being erotic. Below is "Abstraction White Rose" from 1927.

See the list of alleged communists Orwell gave to the British government

In 1949, Orwell provided a list of communist sympathizers to a British anti-communist propaganda unit, naming figures like actor Charlie Chaplin and writer John Steinbeck. When it was made public in 2003, some called Orwell a government informant, though others blamed his tuberculosis, which would take his life a year later, while others blamed his romantic interest in the woman who asked him for the names.

South Korean artist uses her own body as a canvas

Dain Yoon is a South Korean artist whose whimsical paintings utilizing her body as a canvas have gone viral. See examples of her works where she uses her face and torso to present elaborate, often surreal, visual works.

Purchasing art is a common money laundering technique

Art is easy to transport internationally, susceptible to price inflation, and usually paid for with cash, making it a frequently used money laundering tactic. Additionally, loose regulations surrounding art transactions allow buyers to remain anonymous, adding an additional layer of ease for people trying to launder money.

He also influenced contemporary artist George Condo

The scale and reach of Picasso and cubism inspired artists and art movements throughout the early to mid-20th century. In fact, his influence can still be seen in artists today. One such artist, George Condo (known for painting the album cover of Kanye West’s “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,” pictured below), heavily references Picasso’s visual language, transmuting the legendary artist’s geometric shapes and perspectives for a more contemporary audience.

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

One '$64,000 Question' winner went from police officer to Shakespearean scholar overnight

Redmond O’Hanlon was a police officer living on Staten Island, New York, when he competed on “The $64,000 Question.” His knowledge of Shakespeare earned him $16,000, which was four times his annual salary. After appearing on the show, he became a minor celebrity, and created a Shakespeare-themed set of playing cards and established the O'Hanlon Shakespeare Service, a consultancy on the Bard, all while continuing to work for the NYPD.

A mescaline-induced hallucination stayed with Jean-Paul Sartre throughout his life

In 1935, Sartre was injected with mescaline, a psychedelic drug that was then used to treat alcoholism and depression, by his friend at the Hôpital Sainte-Anne in Paris. It was not a good trip: Sartre saw nightmarish crabs for days and suffered a mental breakdown. For the rest of his life, crustaceans like the ones he saw during the hallucination appeared in his works.

Shohei Ohtani's interpreter allegedly stole $16M for gambling debts

Ippei Mizuhara first met Shohei Ohtani during the two-way star’s rookie year in Japan. Ten years later, Mizuhara, who had become a trusted friend and confidant to Ohtani, is alleged to have stolen $16M from his employer to repay gambling debts.

Crypto history's is full of bizarre stories

Digital currencies based solely on misspellings of former President Joe Biden’s name have skyrocketed, and backers of a token based on a Shiba Inu wearing a hat raised $690K to get their logo on the Las Vegas Sphere.

Gay Talese ran up expenses close to $5,000 to pursue ‘Frank Sinatra Has a Cold’

In this retrospective, Talese reflects on the making of the legendary article that pioneered a new literary style. He offers his critiques of the modern state of profiles, arguing the industry no longer produces compelling work.

Mini-portraits were shared as love tokens in Elizabethan England

Art historians are identifying previously unknown works by Nicholas Hilliard, Elizabeth I's court painter, whose thumb-sized watercolors on vellum served as love tokens, diplomatic currency, and status symbols. They were believed to be passed secretly between courtiers and monarchs.

A funeral director lied and claimed he discovered a centuries-old Roman brooch

An amateur metal detectorist knowingly deceived thousands into believing he found an 1,800-year-old horse figurine. He received payment for the artifact to be featured in a museum, but he later admitted he bought the brooch online and planted it.

After her fellow cult members tried to kill her with an LSD-infused hamburger, one member of the Manson Family, the murderous cult led by Charles Manson, decided to testify against the group's leader.

See 33 images that became central to huge scandals, including a young Charles and Camilla, Michael Jackson's baby on a hotel balcony, and Hugh Grant's mugshot.

American short story writer Flannery O'Connor raised 40 peacocks, which became potent symbols for her fiction's elegant violence

US intelligence allegedly pursued more than 600 schemes to assassinate Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro.

Against his wishes, Albert Einstein's brain was removed before his cremation, and the pathologist responsible stored it for decades in mason jars within a beer cooler.

American dance legend Martha Graham, sometimes called 'the Picasso of dance,' refused to perform at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and conceived the piece 'Chronicle' in response to the experience.

Many legends about George Washington, including his supposed wooden teeth and the story of cutting down the cherry tree, lack evidence.

When a Paris department store hesitated to sell Estée Lauder's perfume, she 'accidentally' broke a bottle, causing the smell to spread throughout the store and shoppers to start asking to buy the scent.

The idea for the Federal Reserve was conceived in secret in 1910—with bankers donning duck hunt gear for disguise while traveling to a remote country club on Georgia's Jekyll Island

Some coin denominations have ridges etched on their sides, partly to prevent counterfeiting, in a practice called 'reeding.'

Mark Twain spent decades feuding with the US Postal Service, convinced its costs and regulations were bureaucratic overreach.

Graffiti dates back to at least ancient Pompeii, where citizens scrawled messages to one another on public walls

One disco producer saw 'Star Wars' four times on its opening weekend and was so inspired that he recorded the album 'Star Wars and Other Intergalactic Funk,' which produced a chart-topping single.

Double world record holder Hunter Ewen helped conquer his fear of balloons, called globophobia, by training to win Guinness World Record titles for balloon inflation.

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

Sunflowers have long been a symbol of nuclear disarmament because they can extract large amounts of radioactive cesium from soil.

A vending machine run with Anthropic's AI went out of business after it was convinced to give away items for free and sell a video game console.

Poison ivy is in the same family as mangoes, cashews, and pistachios—and they all produce oily urushiol in their raw, unprocessed state—but they are typically prepared in ways to avoid causing human discomfort.

'Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone,' a work by American painter Thomas Moran, inspired Congress to establish Yellowstone National Park.

Hotels in Cannes, the glamorous city on the French Riviera, hire hawks to ward off seagulls during the city's famous film festival.

Use this tool to calculate the dollar value of your parental mental load, from meal planning to coordinating after-school care, then see resources that help generate solutions.