Last night I watched “The Art of the Steal,” a 2009 documentary about the Barnes Foundation. It’s an Impressionist museum that moved from Merion, Pennsylvania (L) about 5 miles to central Philadelphia (R). According to the movie, the Barnes was pillaged.

THIS DOC IS INSANE!

Claims made by “The Art of the Steal”:

—Museums are bad
—The Met is especially awful
—MoMA specifically is the worst
—The Barnes is the most important museum in the nation if not the world

Claims made by “The Art of the Steal” (cont’d):

—Barnes thought Philly was terrible
—Barnes thought Philadelphians were idiots
—Keeping the museum in suburban Merion was worthwhile to keep it away from Philadelphians

Claims made by “The Art of the Steal” (cont’d):

—Barnes entrusted his collection to Lincoln University (an HBCU) to troll Philly establishment
—Only Lincoln could protect the Barnes legacy
—But Lincoln was incredibly greedy to strike a deal to move this collection it didn’t want

Claims made by “The Art of the Steal” (cont’d):

—Richard Glanton sent the collection traveling in 1993
—Barnes paintings traveled across the U.S., Tokyo, Paris
—Glanton’s tour raised $16MM
—Meanwhile Glanton completely renovated the 1925 building
—**Glanton ruined the Barnes**

Claims made by “The Art of the Steal” (cont’d):

—Merion neighbors call Glanton (who is Black) a carpetbagger
—NIMBY Merion neighbors shut down visitor traffic to the museum
—NIMBY Merion neighbors protest when leaders want to move the museum
—**Merion neighbors are the heroes**

Claims made by “The Art of the Steal” (cont’d):

—The Annenberg Foundation is bad
—The Pew Charitable Trusts is bad
—Pew specifically changed its status from private foundation to nonprofit org in 2004 to steal the Barnes

Claims made by “The Art of the Steal” (cont’d):

—Allowing too many people to see Impressionist paintings is bad
—Opening the museum just two days a week to the public is good
—The Philadelphia Museum of Art is “Satan’s lair” (!)

Oh I highly recommend “The Art of the Steal.” Especially when you visit @the_barnes. Which remains:

—Open
—Not ruined
—With all the paintings exactly the way weirdo Barnes hung them
—In a replica of the original rooms
—Only moved 5 miles
—Where millions of people can visit

Meanwhile it goes without saying that Barnes incredibly odd vision for hanging art and his iron-clad will for preserving this vision after his death are good and noble — but in reality that means Christian paintings hanging over African masks