A Symbol Worth Stealing
When a painting disappears, whose story finally shows up?
Item of interest- General Andrew Jackson Portrait
General Andrew Jackson
Waldo, Samuel Lovett. General Andrew Jackson. 1819. Oil on canvas, 25 3/4 x 21 in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Accession No. 06.197.
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/13093.
The Heist: Not for Profit—For Protest
In a fictional act of resistance, General Andrew Jackson vanishes from the walls of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. But this isn’t your average art theft, it’s a symbolic rebellion. This imagined heist takes aim not at the art itself, but at the glorification of violence, colonization, and the myths institutions choose to preserve.
Painted in 1819 by Samuel Lovett Waldo, the portrait predates Jackson’s presidency but contributes to a larger narrative of mythmaking. Museums present Jackson as a hero, quietly brushing aside his policies of Indigenous removal, voter suppression, and white nationalist ideology.
Fast forward, and the same oppressive ideologies linger, repackaged in modern politics, echoed by figures like Donald Trump, who openly admired Jackson’s “toughness.”