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THE ART OF THE STEAL Send This Review to a Friend
There is no mincing of words in “The Art of the Steal,” directed by Don Argott. The film clearly charges theft of the great, infinitely valuable art collection of the famous Barnes Museum in Lower Merion, Pennsylvania by powerful forces who want to hijack the collection and place it in a larger museum centrally located in Philadelphia as a major tourist attraction. The film castigates the move as a gross violation of the intention by the late Dr. Albert C. Barnes, who built and established the collection as his vision of how it should be shown in intimate surroundings for educational purposes away from the establishment art museums that he detested.
I have visited the Barnes and have been dazzled by his vast collection of works by Van Gogh, Picasso, Cezanne, Matisse and others. The Barnes Foundation has been in control, but there have been charges that the Foundation was in financial trouble and couldn’t maintain the museum. The film contends that the financial plight is bogus, and that money could readily be available. It also seeks to demonstrate shenanigans from within.
The film consists primarily of interviews by those claiming that the whole operation of transferring the collection was a despicable violation of Barnes’s intent, and a grab by political and moneyed interests. The film includes statements by Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell and Philadelphia Mayor John Street to justify the move, as well as by many who would block it. But the protests thus far have not succeeded and the court decisions have given the go-ahead to the shift.
The issue raises the question of what happens to an art collection, or anything else for that matter, that is bequeathed with explicit instructions by the donor. Barnes made a point of where and how the collection was to be maintained. Whatever justification may be given, it is clear that the transfer is a blatant violation of the intent of Dr. Barnes. However many more people will get to see the collection in its new location being built, it will be flouting the plan for how the collection was meant to be shown. And without Barnes, there would be no such collection in the first place. I have to agree with the ethical viewpoint that the collection should be maintained as intended. An IFC Films release.
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