In the first five minutes of THE STOLEN PAINTING, a blind dowager manages to offend Blacks, Bretons and her own brood. It sets the tone for this caustic comedy set in the arts end of the world.
André Masson, an arrogant Aston Martin driving auctioneer at the famous Scottie’s auction house, receives a letter one day stating that a painting by Egon Schiele has been discovered in Mulhouse, a French industrial town near the Swiss-German border at the home of a young worker.
Though highly sceptical, André travels to view the canvas with his ex-partner Bettina who is also an expert evaluator, only to be convinced of its authenticity as a masterwork long assumed destroyed by Nazi officials during WWII.
For André, the ramifications of this once-in-a-lifetime find for his career is not lost, but the discovery and its provenance is full of contention, as cloudy as crystal put through a dishwasher.
THE STOLEN PAINTING is the very ordinary title of an extraordinarily complex film that canvases a rich palette of relationships with fine brush strokes.
Skilfully brought to life by an array of endearing and duplicitous characters, THE STOLEN PAINTING is a thrilling exploration of the often-cynical world of art dealing and collecting, where the jaw-dropping prices aren’t always related to the rarity of the object or the desire of potential customers.
In some ways, THE STOLEN PAINTING is a heist movie, albeit an abstract one. It’s about confidence and counterfeit, emotional as well as representational.
Inspired by remarkable true events, writer/director Pascal Bonitzer’s THE STOLEN PAINTING is an intriguing plot puzzle with parallel narratives astride the sophistication of the art world and the simple aspirations of the existential, an antidote to the big bang callow talents with a knack for noise dominating the current box office.
