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For decades in art circles it was either a rumour or a joke, but now it is confirmed as a fact. The Central Intelligence Agency used American modern art \u2013 including the works of such artists as Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko \u2013 as a weapon in the Cold War. In the manner of a Renaissance prince \u2013 except that it acted secretly \u2013 the CIA fostered and promoted American Abstract Expressionist painting around the world for more than 20 years.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Because Abstract Expressionism was expensive to move around and exhibit, millionaires and museums were called into play. Pre-eminent among these was Nelson Rockefeller, whose mother had co-founded the Museum of Modern Art in New York. As president of what he called \u201cMummy\u2019s museum\u201d, Rockefeller was one of the biggest backers of Abstract Expressionism (which he called \u201cfree enterprise painting\u201d). His museum was contracted to the Congress for Cultural Freedom to organise and curate most of its important art shows.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n The museum was also linked to the CIA by several other bridges. William Paley, the president of CBS broadcasting and a founding father of the CIA, sat on the members\u2019 board of the museum\u2019s International Program. John Hay Whitney, who had served in the agency\u2019s wartime predecessor, the OSS, was its chairman. And Tom Braden, first chief of the CIA\u2019s International Organisations Division, was executive secretary of the museum in 1949.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u2013 From the excellent Independent<\/em> article published in\u00a01995:\u00a0Modern Art Was CIA \u2018Weapon\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n