Film can change minds and inform a viewer of things which are obscured from view otherwise. That's what this film did for me in two significant ways. It gave me glimpses of Albert C. Barnes' private collection of art for the first time as a whole and it exposed some things about some entities which I have supported uncritically.
The Pew Charitable Trust, Annenberg Foundation, and even NPR (by their complicity) have done me wrong. They've not told the story of this most significant collection of modernist and post-modernist/impressionist works as the tragedy that it is. I've only heard about the positive thing that it is for all of us that the works will be showcased in a new facility downtown in Philadelphia. The fact that Pew, Annenberg, and others are key contributors to NPR and other arts organizations has certainly cut the legs out from under the reporting of what has to be described as a crime.
But it's a crime with so many nemeses, material supporters, political gleaners, monetizers, and egotists that blame is hard to portion. It's a crime which has taken decades to pull off, and it's the biggest heist in world history.
25 billion in art has been stolen from the trust of the owner, despite what should have been an airtight will, and an inexpensive maintenance of his estate. He'd taken great pains to insure his collection would not be taken from the place he chose to showcase it, among the educational art program which he had been so passionate about while alive.
Alas, his vision to acquire such most significant pieces by folks like Picasso and Matisse before the rest of the world art community wanted them, resulted in a collection which has been coveted for myriad reasons in subsequent years.
There are reams of writings about the works, and about Barnes, who is often painted as an "irascible" character, as a maladroit, or as a selfish miser who has chosen to keep these works from view by the regular public.
http://www.barnesfoundation.org/h_main.html
I'd fallen prey to these overwhelming voices. But these characterizations are part of the machinery of this theft. They're propaganda which built the foundation for the justification of the "eminent domain" actions taken by governments, foundations, and charities.
You see, greed, power, and crime is not exclusive to any political party. In this film I am reminded that even charity can be a racket, and that Democrats can do the same sort of things which Republicans have been resoundingly accused of for the last 10 years. The reasons and methods aren't so different. But in this case, the powers that be chose to play upon the charitable hearts of the masses, and pass this off as a way to "protect" the collection, and to "insure" that it survives, and to make sure that it becomes "accessible" to the public.
All of those things are grandiose lies, and the most despicable thing is that they're wrapped with motives advertised as so noble and well-intentioned.
That doesn't change the fact that this is a modern story of an epic theft which reads on screen like a tale of espionage. It's also an object lesson about property rights, the nature and scope of private ownership, greed corrupting good motives, with a bit of art history instruction as a backdrop.
Maybe Barnes has won after all. We're talking about the art, and learning about the politics within and without, the latter which he despised and the former which he adored.
I have already spoken with the wife about a pilgrimage to the current site of the Barnes Foundation, to see the art as it was intended by the collector, before the big theft becomes finalized in 2012. *sigh*
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1326733/
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