Solution to Believe What You're Told

By Michael Pihulic (with editing from Annelise Beck and Josiah Schwab)

This puzzle consists of 10 sets of 2 images and a sentence. Each image is a famous (or not so famous but Google-able) painting with a face photoshopped onto it. The flavortext emphasizes that the artist is important: identifying the artist of each painting and reading the first letter of their last name (read down the left column and then the right) gives the phrase VIEW TOP DOG SOUTH MURAL. This, combined with the title ("Believe What You're Told"), clues that teams should go to the Southside location of Top Dog.

There is a large poster at the Southside location that contains all the faces. The faces have a distinct left-to-right ordering (see image below). Additionally, the sentence for each set of paintings about the "inspiration" of the artists refers to items that can be found in the Top Dog poster. The flavortext "tally" suggests that these items should be counted. This number can then be used as an index: indexing into the titles of the paintings to extract one letter and then ordering the letters by the face position in the poster gives the clue phrase VENUS OF URBINOS ARTIST: TITIAN.

Information about each painting, in the order (and two-column arrangement) that the paintings appear in the puzzle:

ArtistPaintingFace numberInspiration itemNumber in posterArtistPaintingFace number
Vermeer, JohannesView of Delft1Phone booth1Sargent, John SingerSpanish Dancer5
Ingres, Jean AugusteVirgil Reading to Augustus16Kite wings3Orchardson, WilliamMaster Baby14
Ernst, MaxCage, Forest, and Black Sun Cage7Bubbles5Uhde, Fritz vonWoman, Why Weepest Thou?3
Weir, Robert WalterEmbarkation of the Pilgrims10Guitarists3TintorettoMiracle of the Slave9
Turner, J. M. W.Dutch Boats in a Gale4White dogs2Hopper, EdwardNighthawks18
O'Keeffe, GeorgiaRam's Head, White Hollyhock, and Little Hills15Sunbathers2Monet, ClaudePoppies Blooming6
Picasso, PabloDora Maar Au Chat13Bags of chips2Uccello, PaoloFunerary Monument to Sir John Hawkwood8
Degas, EdwardWaiting11Hare Krishnas3Rivera, DiegoDetroit Industry17
Orozco, Jose ClementeOmnisciencia12Balloons3Absolon, PhilipBreakdown2
Gainsbourough, ThomasSunset19Straws4Lichtenstein, RoyPistol20