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Kombo_Chapfika
Reviews
The Art of the Steal (2009)
The vagaries of covetous institutional power
I thoroughly enjoyed this film, and I recommend it to anyone interested in fine art, documentary film-making, public scandals, and untold histories. It was both educational and entertaining; it amazes me that I was unaware of this ongoing art theft (the largest ever) until recently, and my ignorance only highlights the ability of powered interests to keep their blatant machinations from greater public scrutiny.
On the substantive arguments: The works in the Barnes collection are not public goods and do not belong to the public or the city of Philadelphia. Dr. Barnes accumulated them through his own prudent art decisions and a fortune he earned fairly. No public funds were ever used to acquire or maintain them and any claims now are merely an attempt to use the levers of public office to appropriate very valuable private property. Without the attempts to corrode the Barnes Foundation from outside and finally from the inside, the foundation could gamely, and rightfully, continue its intended purpose, as clearly stated in Dr. Barnes will. Everything else, as Mr. Glanton (who is deliciously sketchy in all his interviews) puts it, is bull____.
I'm very surprised and disappointed there hasn't been more of a public response by artists and collectors whose own wills and collections could be similarly abrogated by well-heeled institutions if this sets a precedent.