Review of The Art of the Steal (2010) by David H — 11 Nov 2010

I had never heard much about the Barnes art collection other than how nice it is before this documentary, but now I can say I know quite a bit about it. This documentary reeled me in and successfully got me on the side of the art fans that were upset over the transfer of the Barnes collection.

The change of power within the Barnes Foundation kept me interested and I literally was angry at the government for letting this happen. However, the fact that the movie is filled with all these people against the moving of the Barnes collection, but a serious lack of people on the other side, because a lot of those people declined being in the film.

This made the film come off as a bit one sided, but the original intent was to make a documentary that had an even amount of discussion from both sides. Overall this is a very good documentary that I would recommend to anyone interested in the world of art.

I give The Art Of The Steal a 4 out of 5.