The Great Chinese Art Heist | Jon M. Chu to direct

[Himmel]

Director Jon M. Chu is certainly loading up his to-do list with potential projects now he's no longer involved with the Willow TV series. He's already attached to make the Wicked movie and now he's also jumping aboard The Great Chinese Art Heist.

Warner Bros. is busy looking for a writer to adapt Alex W. Palmer's eponymous GQ Article, which follows a slew of museum art robberies that occurred in Europe, in which Chinese antiquities were stolen, chiefly those that came from the country’s old Summer Palace which was raided in 1860 by French soldiers. No one knows who the thieves are, but the works of art continually wind up back in China. Essentially, there’s a new generation of wealthy Chinese people who are collecting artifacts from the old Summer Palace. Is China’s government behind the art theft wave? The feature questions who gets to own art, and who gets to own history and culture

Meanwhile the museums are remaining quiet about the robberies. The thefts put museums in a vulnerable position: Everyone questions their security, no one wants to donate works or materials, and their insurance rates spike as many would question an art institution’s credibility. ¥