IFC sent over the teaser poster for The Art of the Steal, a film about the controversial battle over a man’s $25 billion dollar art collection.
Directed by Don Argott (of the excellent doc Rock School),
the film’s already played the New York Film Fest and TIFF. It’s going to hit February 26th under the Sundance Selects
label and will be available on demand February 24th.
The story really is something else. Albert C. Barnes was a working class man who made a fortune after creating an antiseptic called Argrol. With it he collected a massive amount of art- Picassos and Manets and Van Goghs, some of the most famous works of art ever to exist. He started a foundation under his name and displayed it in a museum he built near Philly. After he died, his instructions for his collection to never be loaned out or sold and to put Lincoln University in charge of it were followed. But after the friend of Barnes died years later the new heads of the organization worked to wrestle control away from Lincoln University and move it to a new building in Philly, somewhere Barnes expressly wished it not to be. The doc follows how exactly the collection was picked up by its new owners and what went on.
Expect the trailer to hit next week.