Art Saved From The Damned Yanks (So?)

An exhibition of “saved” art in London is a tedious self-congratulatory affair, writes Jonathan Jones. “Quite what art needs to be saved from is not made clear but, as this exhibition documents a century of the National Art Collections Fund, whose mission is to purchase for British galleries “treasures” that would otherwise be sold abroad, I think we all know that the villain of the piece smokes a big cigar, wears a Stetson and waves a bunch of dollars about. Thank God, we are supposed to say, that Titian’s Venus Anadyomene never ended up in the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Te argument is plain enough.”