Stolen: An excellent documentary on the Gardner Museum heist. I don’t think I really learned anything new and the blinders-on focus on the Vermeer was somewhat off-putting. Yes, the Vermeer is incredibly rare* and extremely valuable**, but Rembrandt’s Storm on the Sea of Galilee is also a significant, valuable and exceedingly rare painting- being Rembrandt’s only seascape. Having that play such a distant second fiddle to the Vermeer kind of bothered the Rembrandt fan in me. Still, I understand the magic of Vermeer (I do have a stated goal of seeing them all in my lifetime, after all,) so I understand the dramatic reasoning behind the film-maker’s decision to focus on the Vermeer, so I won’t complain too loudly.
Definitely check this film out if you’ve got any interest at all in this sort of thing.
District B13: Great fun. It touches on an interesting trend that I want to go into in a little more depth, so expect a full review of this one at some point soon.
*One of only 35
** A YOUNG WOMAN SEATED AT THE VIRGINALS, a lesser painting with less than universal acceptance as a Vermeer sold in 2004 for $30,000,000. A painting of the quality of The Concert would be far north of that number.