Schmutz, Thomas

2003, Griener, Pascal, Schneemann, Peter J, Schmutz, Thomas

Examines how early 20th-c. American art collectors, art dealers, and museums began to buy European Old Masters paintings and contemporary works in order to develop priceless private collections and reputable museum collections. Discusses Alfred Barr's exhibitions Cubism and abstract art (Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1936) and another exhibition of Italian Old Masters, emphasizing the continuity between the old and the new and forging a genealogy for the newer works to which the public could relate. Investigates the collusion between Joseph Duveen and Bernard Berenson to sell doctored Old Masters' works to the American collectors.