Mick Jagger heads up an art heist

Introducing Rakewell, Apollo’s wandering eye on the art world. Look out for regular posts taking a rakish perspective on art and museum stories

Rakewell can, it seems, get some satisfaction. Your correspondent is thrilled to hear that rock’n’roll pensioner Mick Jagger will appear in The Burnt Orange Heresy, an art-world thriller directed by Giuseppe Capotondi that will have its premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September. Jagger plays Cassidy, a major art collector living on the Italian lakes, who plots to steal a painting from the studio of a reclusive American artist (Donald Sutherland). Should it be even a fraction as entertaining as that premise suggests, Jagger groupies should be very excited indeed.

Though acting may not be his strongest suit, Jagger’s visual art pedigree is pretty much impeccable. In the 1960s, he hobnobbed with the first-rate artists represented by dealer Robert Fraser; indeed, the two were arrested on drug charges together in 1967, their apprehension immortalised in Richard Hamilton’s Swingeing London. 

Jagger has also captured the imagination of artists from Francis Bacon and Cecil Beaton to Elizabeth Peyton. But his most notable artistic association was with Andy Warhol, whom he first met in 1964 and remained close to until Warhol’s death in 1987. Jagger tapped Warhol to design the risqué cover for the Stones’ Sticky Fingers LP and in 1975 became the subject for one of his portraits, a portfolio of screenprints. As a clever marketing touch, both men signed the finished works, making them a must have for deep-pocketed Stones fans and Warhol collectors alike.

‘[Mick is] androgynous enough for almost anyone,’ Warhol said in 1979. ‘That’s always been his basic appeal, mixed with the facts that: 1) He’s very talented; 2) He’s very intelligent; 3) He’s very handsome; 4) He’s very adorable; 5) He’s a great business person; 6) He’s a great movie star; 7) I like his fake cockney accent…’

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