The true story of a multi-billion dollar art heist and how they got away with it… 2009 Documentary follows the struggle for control of Dr. Albert C. Barnes’ 25 billion dollar collection of modern and post-impressionist art.
The Art of the Steal is a 2009 documentary film directed by Don Argott, about the controversial move of the Barnes Foundation, generally considered to be the world’s best collection of post-Impressionist art and valued in 2009 to be worth at least $25 billion, from Merion, Pennsylvania to Philadelphia.
The move was disputed because Albert C. Barnes, who died in 1951, had specifically selected Lower Merion Township for its location. The collection was moved in 2012 to Philadelphia.
The film presents an account of the claimed breaking of Barnes’s will, which it presents as a decades-long process that was initiated by Philadelphians who were enemies of Barnes while he was alive, and that was continued by their heirs.
The will of Barnes established the Foundation with strict rules against ever moving the collection or any of its paintings away from its location, and to serve primarily as a school for the teaching of art, art criticism, and art appreciation, and not primarily as a museum for the general public.
The people who supported the move argued that the collection should instead become a major tourist attraction for Philadelphia. The supporters of Merion claimed that the Philadelphians were less interested in Barnes’s will than in enhancing their power by taking over the control of a $25+ billion asset.
This film looks at the controversy surrounding the art collection of Dr. Albert C. Barnes, a millionaire who amassed a remarkable selection of significant works during the early 20th century. Barnes sought to keep his priceless pieces together as part of his foundation even after his death, but the involvement of numerous parties led to the scattering of his collection.
