Artless and Heartless Theft

Albert Coombs Barnes was born in Philadelphia, in 1872, the son of a butcher. He grew up poor, and though he would become a very wealthy man, he favored the working class to his financial peers. His wealth came from his inventing Argyrol, an antiseptic compound.

Don Argott's documentary, "The Art of the Steal", concentrates on the history of Mr. Barnes' unparalleled private art collection. Without ever being trained in what constitutes "good art", he set out buying whatever he personally liked, including Matisse and Picasso. "Knowledgeable" art critics of his era laughed at his ignorance and wrote that his collection was junk. Some experts they turned out to be. Eventually his accumulated art was assessed as being worth about 30 billion dollars. Not millions. Billions.

He created a museum to hang his collection, not too far from Philadelphia, but he also wanted artists to have a place to learn their craft and the building served as a school, as well. This meant that it wasn't open as much as some would have preferred. He didn't care.

"The Art of the Steal" is about what happened to the collection after Barnes died in a car accident in 1951. He left a will and he was determined that the collection stay where it was and out of the hands out of the rich, local families like the Annenbergs. For 30 years, a trusted associate fulfilled his wishes. Upon her death, it all began to unravel.

Argott does a great job of presenting this story like an unfolding mystery. There are times where you want to throw your arms up and yell at the screen with disgust at some of the players in this saga. Whoever first said that you should never steal anything small is proven right once again. The bigger the thing you take, the less likely there will be any meaningful punishment. An ironic moment near the end is a perfect footnote to everything that preceded it and it will make you smile at how strangely justice can suddenly appear.