Sure, this is sort of satirical: Art World Relieved As Thieves Steal Pretty Terrible Late Period Renoir Work
CHICAGO—The art world let out a collective sigh of relief Tuesday when it was announced that thieves had made off with one of Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s more god-awful late-period paintings, 1919’s The Great Bathers (The Nymphs). “The palette was too rosy, the brushstrokes were something out of a college art class, and Renoir’s gift for capturing his subject’s inner mystery seemed to have completely abandoned him—in short, it was garbage and I’m glad it’s gone,” said Malcolm Stewart, a curator at the Art Institute of Chicago, which has done little to assist the police in their investigation.
…but as I understand it a lot of museums have artworks that they sort of can’t stand, but have to display for a variety of reasons, usually involving a bequest. One museum in Paris – I forget which one – bit the bullet and put all of their really bad art in a room, on the principle that they had the finest collection of really bad art in Europe, by God, and they were going to show it off.
I have to say, the French are very good at museums. For that matter, when I went to Paris in the Nineties everyone was quite nice to the American.
Moe Lane