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Conspiracy. It's a word best personified by The X-Files and the Kennedy assassination. Rarely do conspiracies work. Someone chickens out; someone gets caught. (Can anyone say Watergate?) Still, as the exemplary documentary The Art of the Steal demonstrates, once in a blue moon a conspiracy succeeds, as with the moving of the impressive Barnes Foundation art collection in Pennsylvania.

Born in Philadelphia to blue collar parents, Albert C. Barnes became a millionaire by age 35, which allowed him to follow his passion for collecting post-impressionist art. In 1922 he established the Barnes Foundation in Merion, Pennsylvania as an educational institution and a place for people to have a quality, rather than a mass art experience.

After a 1923 show in Philadelphia was called "primitive," Barnes became determined to never let his collection be moved to the city of brotherly love and drew up a meticulous will that should have prevented it from ever happening.

As time passed, Philadelphia's elite grew increasingly envious of Barnes's $25 billion, 9,000-piece collection and wanted it for themselves to enhance their own societal standing. During the 1990s, with foundation leadership in place that was more interested in the almighty dollar, Barnes's will was slowly chipped away.

The Art of the Steal is unapologetic with its blunt opinion that a theft of epic proportions is currently taking place in Pennsylvania. It squarely points the finger of blame towards a greed-inspired conspiracy that only Gordon Gekko would be proud of.

Director Don Argott follows a mysterious paper trial and uses a plethora of in-depth interviews with art critics, journalists, former Barnes Foundation board members, NAACP chairman and Barnes family friend Julian Bond, and Pennsylvania's governor among others to put together an insightful and disturbing look into what's been an inexcusable misuse of power.

Argott makes a clear case that Pennsylvania's governor and attorney general, Philadelphia's mayor, powerful arts foundations based in Philadelphia, and the current chairman of the Barnes Foundation are all to blame for the dismantling of a benevolent institution that was the art world's shining beacon on a hill.

It's also troubling to know that no matter how legally ironclad your will or estate might be, what you leave behind can be taken away by those with power and money.

On a letter grade scale from A being excellent to F for failing, The Art of the Steal receives an A+.
    
The Art of the Steal is unrated and has a running time of 101 minutes.


Now showing through May 13 @
Tivoli Cinemas
Westport Manor Square, 4050 Pennsylvania, KCMO
Visit www.tivolikc.com or call 913-383-7756 for show times.

Top photo: Albert C. Barnes

By Michael D. Smith

Indie Film Editor

Michael D. Smith earned a Bachelor of Arts in history at College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Missouri followed by a Master of Arts in history at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Inspired by such critics as Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, Michael started reviewing films in 1992 for College of the Ozarks's student-run newspaper. After returning to the Kansas City area in 1994, he continued film reviewing by writing for the Cass County Democrat Missourian in Harrisonville.

In 2000 Michael joined Sun Publications in Overland Park, Kansas where he served as its film critic and Arts and Entertainment Editor. During his tenure there, he was also the film critic for the "Fine Arts Radio Hour" and "Celebrity Scoop" radio shows on KXTR. After leaving the Sun in late 2002, he became the A&E writer for the Olathe News in Olathe, Kansas. He also worked as a freelance writer for The Squire in Leawood, Showcase Publishing in Lake Ozark, Missouri and the Kansas City Star.

Michael is currently a member of the Kansas City Film Critics Circle, a professional film critic organization established in 1966 by the late Dr. James Loutzenhiser.

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