London, UK

Truth is indeed stranger than fiction. It has now been confirmed that the Central Intelligence Agency used American modern art — including the works of such artists as Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko — as a weapon in the Cold War, beginning in 1947.

“In the manner of a Renaissance prince (except that it acted secretly) the CIA fostered and promoted American Abstract Expressionism around the world for more than 20 years.”

Why did the CIA support these artists? “Because in the propaganda war with the Soviet Union, this new artistic movement could be held up as proof of the creativity, the intellectual freedom, and the cultural power of the US. Russian art, strapped into the communist ideological straitjacket, could not compete.”

Read the full article, entitled “Modern art was CIA ‘weapon,'” from The Independent, here.