 | Thursday, April 28, 2022 | |  | Thursday, April 28, 2022 | | Hi, art lovers! | | | Swindlers, forgers, thieves: like much of the population, I’m a sucker for any true-crime story that features one (or all) of those crooks. So while everyone on the CBC Arts team was scanning listings for the Hot Docs Festival, calling dibs on which films to blurb (read our staff picks), one title (The Thief Collector) tripped the laser-alarm system in my brain. Translation: I needed to see it.
The story begins by recapping an art crime that sounds a shade quirkier than most: a stolen painting by Willem de Kooning re-emerged decades later in rural New Mexico, hanging in the bedroom of two recently deceased schoolteachers. This article from 2018 is what got the director interested in the case, and it’s just the beginning of the intrigue because the doc winds up investigating so much more than the riddle of how Woman-Ochre wound up in a Walmart frame. (Now in the process of being restored, it’ll go on display at the Getty Center later this year.)
Are you a sucker for these stories too? Then you’ll devour these old long reads if you haven’t already: “The Secrets of the World’s Greatest Art Thief”, the secrets of France’s greatest art thief, and the not-so-secret (but unsolved) case of Canada’s greatest art heist.
Why do we love stories about art crime so much? (Seriously, I’m asking.) Heck, if the robbery is sensational enough, it can mint a masterpiece: that’s how much we love a great heist headline. (This is presuming the art’s recovered, of course. Hello, Mona Lisa.)
So what’s the answer? There’s no shortage of speculation out there, as many opinions as there are missing museum pieces. (Or maybe not. More than 52,000 is a lot.) | | | And because we promised you eye candy ... | | |  | Brendan George Ko | As part of the Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival, billboards in 10 cities across Canada will be featuring work by Brendan George Ko. (Here’s where to find them.) | | | | |  | Centre Materia | | If you saw our short doc on Amanda McCavour all those years ago and have been daydreaming about roaming through one of her installations ever since, get your butt to Quebec City this spring. She has a new exhibition at the Centre Materia to May 29. | | | | |  | @ameliacarley/Instagram | | From ocean drawings to paintings of beach glass. (Art by Amelia Carley.) | | | | |  | @williambroidery/Instagram | | This trash isn’t as pretty as beach glass, but damn if it doesn’t look good when William KW gets his hands on it. | | | | |  | Courtesy of Alter Estate | | | | | Were they an ordinary couple or thrill-seeking art thieves? The Thief Collector tells the wild tale of a stolen de Kooning. | | | | |  | Hot Docs | | | | | Plan your viewing schedule with these staff picks. | | | | |  | The Local Gallery | | | | | | | Take a trip to an art show that celebrates the sport, with rhinestone-studded balls and a robot programmed to shoot perpetual two-pointers. | | |  | @peppy_colours/Instagram | | That basketball art show I just mentioned? Pepe’s the curator, and this work of his is also a part of the exhibition. | | | | | Share this newsletter | | or subscribe if this was
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The newsletter will be taking a short break, so before I enter vacation mode, a reminder: the winner of CBX: Canadian Ballroom Extravaganza will be revealed Friday, May 6, when the finale arrives on CBC Gem. Add it to your queue!
I’m Leah Collins, senior writer at CBC Arts. Until next time! | | | | | |
