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The Art of the Steal is a new documentary on the Barnes foundation and its planned move from Merion.  Scott Tobias has a review for the AV Club:

As a forward-thinking art collector in the ‘20s, Dr. Albert Barnes snapped up an extraordinary wealth of post-impressionist and modernist paintings from the likes of Matisse, Picasso, Renoir, and Cezanne; though dismissed by tastemakers at the time, his collection is now valued in the tens of billions. In his will, Dr. Barnes was very specific about what the trustees were to do with his assets: He wanted them to remain housed in his small, meticulously conceived institution in the Philadelphia suburb of Merion, never to be loaned out or sold to other museums. He wanted the Barnes trustees to continue his educational mission. And most of all, he wanted to make sure the corporate foundations and politicians in Philly didn’t get their grubby paws on it. The Art Of The Steal is about how Barnes’ seemingly ironclad wishes were withered away by unscrupulous trustees, coffer-draining legal battles, and the overwhelming force of a city looking to bring in the tourist dollar. There are two sides of the story—the other being that the Barnes Foundation simply didn’t have the capital to be a sustainable entity—but the film makes its allegiances clear. And that’s not a bad thing: In this David and Goliath story, Goliath kicks the ever loving shit out of David, and the film is convincing and righteous in its advocacy. It also leaves you with troubling questions about the runaway commodification of art, the extent to which it does or does not belong the public, and just how much power the individual really has in society. Grade: B

Toronto Film Festival ’09:  Day 4 [AV Club].  

From the AP:

SAN FRANCISCO—A federal appeals court has breathed new life into a lawsuit filed by a Connecticut woman against the Norton Simon Museum of Art over ownership of art seized by the Nazis.

Marei von Saher of Greenwich sued in 2007 claiming she was the rightful owner of a pair of 16th Century wood panels painted by famed German artist Lucas Cranach the Elder.

But a trial court in Los Angeles tossed out the case, ruling unconstitutional a California law extending the statute of limitations for heirs of Holocaust victims.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with that holding Wednesday, but said von Saher may have another legal avenue. It says the lawsuit may proceed if von Saher can prove she inherited the art before the statute of limitations expired under another state law not related to Holocaust survivors.

My continued apologies—it seems the technical difficulties on the blog may continue.  I understand a number of google blogs are having this difficulty, and it may be attributed to a sustained attack on one prominent Georgian blogger.  It seems crazy that the attack on one writer would be possible; and that it would disrupt so many others.  In any event I may have a very nice idea for a future article on international freedom of speech. 

I’m not sure why my blog would be affected but not others, I did post some thoughts on the Russia/Georgia dispute last year.  In any event, please be patient; I’m still trying to sort out the difficulty.  It appears that I can still post new material, and in the event things are not fixed I have saved the blog archives. 

Apologies for the difficulties with properly displaying the blog today, this appears to be a problem with blogger, and I’m attempting to sort things out now.

In the Art Newspaper, Brook S. Mason reports on the increase in visitors to artist sites and historic homes in the US and the UK—a product perhaps of the economic downturn.  Though the art market may be suffering, people may be staying closer to home and visiting the historic sites and areas near them:

Apologies for the very light posting the last five weeks. 

One of the great advantages of teaching is if you are disciplined and get your writing done during the year, the summer is often a time for travel and research.  We’ve had a really terrific summer, travelling and eating our way through Italy, the UK, the flint hills of Kansas, Oaxaca Mexico (where we visited the Rufino Tamayo Prehispanic Museum, and saw this terrific Maya Stele). 

I have a number of posts on these post planned in the coming days, so many thanks for you readership. 

One of the highlights for me of the ARCA Conference earlier this month was the

No posting today, the Spaniel wants a piece of cultural heritage:  a Zulu Coconut. 

Many fellow bloggers have kindly syndicated content from this and other blogs. If you would please use the updated RSS feed for this site, it should use updated content, rather than the post from a couple years back: http://feeds.feedburner.com/IllicitCulturalProperty

For a number of reasons I have routed my feed through feedburner, so you’ll have to use that address, not the general address for this blog.