Film review by Lorena

This documentary did a marvelous job exposing the greed of the corporate. Barnes is an inspiration, he attained his wealth through hard work and then chose to spend this wealth on art and not just one piece of art but the largest collection of art that museums could only dream of. The distinction between public and private collection was made clear as well as how private collections are manipulated. By purchasing art, especially art of the master, complete control is supposed to be given with a certain insurance. Barnes had a simple and reasonable wish which was to keep his collection in the foundation he worked so hard to establish intact. He strongly disliked the idea of the museum collection and the several aspects of life in Philadelphia and of course those are the main parties who worked so hard to disable his will piece by piece, disrespecting him as well as his art in every way. Barnes original intent was to have his art open for educational purpose and wasn't meant to be visible to the masses encouraging tourism. He had created a beautiful and unique way of displaying his art in a way which was strikingly different from the typical gallery feel. The collection had an aesthetic home feel with the colored wall, structured layout of the paintings and the addition of home furniture. Every object had reason and purpose and represented Barnes, when this art is placed elsewhere against the wish in his will it no longer has the same aesthetic. The whole fate of the collection is very sad especially how the ones who gained control of the multibillion dollar collection didn't even have an eye for art and continued to disgrace Barnes as well as his collection. I’d like to see more collections like this in the future; they are very unique and are a nice change to the typical gallery exhibition. Overall the documentary was very informative and provoked thought regarding public and private art.