Movie Review: 'Art of the Steal' frames a tale of intrigue
Share with others:
Controversy still stirs over the Elgin Marbles -- the Athens Parthenon sculptures collected by Lord Elgin in the early 1800s and put on display in the British Museum, London. The Greek government has requested their return.
The past decade has seen artworks once in the possession of great Western museums taken back to their countries of origin, and others pillaged by Nazi Germany returned to their owners.
Now Pennsylvania is entering the final act of what appears to be its own misappropriation of artworks, the move of a treasure of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings from their original home in the Philadelphia suburbs to a city site along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
This is the subject of the film "The Art of the Steal: The Untold Story of The Barnes Foundation," which opens today at the Manor Theater in Squirrel Hill.
It's not a minor squabble. For starters, one estimated value of the art is $25 billion, although some deem it priceless.
One of the world's largest collections of Impressionist and early Modern paintings, it includes 181 by Renoir, 69 by Cezanne, 59 by Matisse, 46 Picassos and seven van Goghs.
In the film, globally prominent art dealer Richard Feigen walks through a Sotheby's auction display, dismissing works as un-Barnesworthy that will later draw bids in the millions. In comparison, he cites one of the Barnes' foremost paintings, "The Card Players" by Cezanne, and muses about its monetary worth. "The Getty couldn't afford it. You would need some sort of a nation to buy it."
Add to that the apparent violation of the wishes of the late founder, Albert C. Barnes, couched within the intrigue of personal vendetta and ambitious politicians, charitable trusts, tourism promoters and the Philadelphia moneyed elite.
It's not a pretty picture, and it's made more egregious by the suggested abdicating of the public trust including use of taxpayer money to support the move.
A product of working-class Philadelphia, Dr. Barnes was born in 1872 and by age 20 had earned his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania. After studying chemistry and pharmacology at the University of Berlin, he made a fortune in pharmaceuticals and began to explore philosophy, art and educational theory.
In 1922, he established The Barnes Foundation to "promote the advancement of education and the appreciation of the fine arts."
First Published April 2, 2010 12:00 am
