Review – The Art of the Steal

After spending a fortune and a lifetime amassing one of the world’s most impressive collections of late 19th and early 20th century art, Albert C. Barnes set up a foundation to strictly control access to it. He had a museum built and displayed the pieces in arrangements designed to help students better understand them. When Barnes was killed in a car crash, the artwork eventually ended up in the hands of the Philadelphia Art Museum, which Barnes hated and never wanted to have his collection. This documentary tells how this strange turn of events came about and thoroughly examines the issues involved from legal, ethical, financial and aesthetic perspectives. Indeed, the production’s one fault is that it’s perhaps a bit too thorough. Some of the coverage is downright exhaustive, not Shoah bad but still deserving of a more judicious edit to cut out some repetition. Still, the story is interesting and is well told here. Mildly amusing