US Army Art Collection...Unseen

[Bikewer]

CBS' Sunday Morning show had a segment this morning on the large collection of art belonging to the the US Army. It is housed in the basement of an office building in Washington, unseen by the general public.
This due to the lack of any sort of museum or facility for putting the material on display.

The pieces shown in the CBS segment were amazing. Powerful, wrenching scenes of soldiers in combat and in everyday activities, ranging from Nazi propaganda pieces (and US-commissioned patriotic posters as well...) to front-line sketches and more formal works depicting famous battles.

It's a damn shame there is no venue for putting these historical pieces on display.

I think I'll be writing my sundry congresspersons.....

Unfortunately, there's no link for the video of the segment or any pics up.. Here's the link to the Sunday Morning page where I presume you can watch the whole show:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/1998/07/09/sunday/main13562.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentAux

[kookbreaker]

So this building won't be able to do anything with it once built?

http://www.armyhistory.org/ahf.aspx?pgID=868

[Bikewer]

Sounds like a great idea (no mention of this project was made during the segment), but I note it's in the "soliciting donations" stage only....

[Matthew Ellard]

CBS' Sunday Morning show had a segment this morning on the large collection of art belonging to the the US Army. It is housed in the basement of an office building in Washington, unseen by the general public.

My father was an Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) officer. The RAAF has its bases ( that can reach Indonesia's main cities) in the middle of our aboriginal settlements. The RAAF also has one of the world's best collections of aboriginal art. The problem is how they acquired it. They exchanged traditional art for alcohol in the 60s and 70's. They should open a museum but it might be more ethical to give it all back using an RAAF trust to open a museum.

I wonder what the RMCP ( Royal Canadian Mounted Police) are sitting on. The Sth African Defence Forces? Even the Vietnamese Defence Forces probably has a fascinating collection. I have no problem with military museums showing art.