"stealing is bad" do you understand how ironic that statement is? Considering these museums have stolen most of what they have on display? You have to use your brain
hey, pumpkin. I fully put the "'stealing is bad' blah blah blah" in the post because I did not want to have to deal with people in the tags or my ask box getting up in arms about the ethics of stealing (in relation to the idea of the way heists are carried out usually being humorous. I am super happy to talk about the issues surrounding museums at any point, not a joke). I am currently taking classes to get a degree in Museum Studies and literally every course I've taken so far has been "and well, this museum is lowkey evil, so....." like I am well aware of the harm a lot of these museums have inflicted and continue to do. I actually just got into a scuffle with my best friend's fiancé (he's from England) about the Parthenon Sculptures/Elgin Marbles (depending on what side you're on). Anyway, this is why I put stealing is bad in quotes. Because people will say that whenever a museum experiences a heist. And of course, there's nuance, there always is. Like I think we can all agree that robbing a museum to then fulfill a commission for a wealthy client that wants to own precious art and keep out of view of the public is not great, but returning art to it's rightful owners is. Or like, we can probably discuss how what Stéphane Breitwieser did was not great, especially considering the lost works that will never be recovered. Anyway, I know you came in here to chastise me, but I know about the nuance around art crime, the point of my post was not to debate the ethics (although I truly am happy to do that, so feel free to keep chatting. this is an area I feel is deeply interesting and I'm always excited to discuss), but to point out how funny art crime and museum heists usually are. And also to the people who are in the tags saying that art should be accessible and this just makes it more difficult, I agree with you too! Like there's nuance to every decision. and the museum world is often corrupt and has nefarious dealings and no good, but also isn't that the argument with no real answer? That yes art, in all its forms should be viewable to the most amount of people, but also not when it goes against the original owners wishes? Who does art belong to? Does provenance really hold up when the line is a little dicey? Look at what happens with O'Keefe's or Nazi looted art. You might feel one way, but then they have a million different grey areas. So I think a one-size fits all argument tends to give way to a black and white thinking that will inevitably be bad in some cases and good in others. Now, do you see why I didn't add all of this into the original post? I mean, I guess I could have stipulated that oftentimes art heists are net bad because it's some professional hired by some rich dick who wants the art for themselves, but also....mini chainsaws.
