Art of The Steal, The (2009) Movie Script

(feedback and reverb)
(soft dramatic music)
(Music continues)
Well, hello everybody.
This is a fabulous day
for Philadelphia,
and we have some wonderful news
for you,
and I am so proud
to present to you
the mayor of Philadelphia,
the mayor of arts and culture,
John Street.
(applause)
- Thank you,
and good afternoon, everyone.
Now, let me see,
what kind of day am I having?
(laughter)
Um, actually it is a very,
very special moment
for all of us here
in the city of Philadelphia.
This has been--
this has been a journey,
and we're not
completely finished yet,
but let me tell you something.
It's one of those things
that will make our city special
for a long, long time.
You will not be able
to go to Houston
and see the Barnes Collection.
You won't be able
to go to Boston.
You won't be able
to go anywhere else.
If you want to see it,
you come to the city
of Philadelphia.
And so it is
with a great sense of pride
that we come here today
so that the Barnes Collection
can be moved from...
Lower Merion?
- Merion.
- From Merion...
Actually,
I pause to tell you
that I was on a bike ride
not too long ago
and rode right past the place.
And I said,
"See you soon..."
(laughter)
In the city of Philadelphia
on the Benjamin Franklin
Parkway.
(frantic piano music)
- You know, this is a story
which should have been told
as it went along.
(tape cassette clicks)
- It is the greatest act
of cultural vandalism
since World War II.
(hard rock music)
- It's been a circus.
You know, he couldn't take
the paintings
up to heaven with him--
or hell
or wherever the heck
he wound up.
(Music continues)
- The name of the game is,
if you're gonna leave
your paintings somewhere,
don't let there be
a politician
within 500 yards.
(Music continues)
- It's America's treasure to be
untainted by these attacks.
(Music continues)
- Culture has become
big business.
Culture is an industry.
There's a culture industry
that requires new product.
(Music continues)
- This is about humanity,
but you can't put
dollar signs on that.
I mean, obviously,
you destroy something fragile
when you do that.
(Music continues)
- It's an example
of something that's happening
all across the society,
and this is just one
nice little microcosm
that we can look at carefully.
(Music continues)
- No one knows this story.
This is a hidden story,
and it's a big, big scandal.
(Music continues)
This is the scandal of
the art world in modern America.
(Music continues)
(cassette clicks and whirs)
- The Barnes is one of the Iast
great personal collections
in the United States.
The fight now
is over how closely
the foundation
Barnes established
should follow Barnes's wishes.
Here were Modern paintings
so important
that they were the envy
of virtually every art museum
in the world.
(birds chirping)
- This is the treasure trove
of, uh,
the Modern art of America
and of the world.
And this is the best of the best
of the best.
- When you go through
the Barnes Collection,
it is jaw-dropping.
Your mouth falls open.
You can't believe
you're seeing this.
And then you go
in another room,
and it's more and more
and more and more.
It's just incredible.
- I had an art handler there,
and the first time she picked up
the Van Gogh Postman to move it,
she walked about three feet,
she put the painting back down
very carefully,
and she sat on a bench,
and she cried.
- They've got more Cezannes
than the entire city--
than are in the entire city
of Paris.
There's 181 Renoirs,
wall to wall.
The joy of life is always cited
in everyone's art book
because it's such
an important painting
in the history of art.
Picasso: 46.
Seven by Van Gogh.
Six by Seurat.
The Seurat Models, now,
of course, that really is
sort of a spectacular thing
that there is no equal for.
- Uh, simply the concentration
of the work
of these particular masters
is unrivaled.
The Louvre doesn't have it.
The Museum of Modern Art,
the Metropolitan Museum,
they don't have it.
- If you've been
to any other museum,
you're used to walking in
and seeing
these white walls
and these paintings hung up.
You know, it's like
a shopping experience.
- Barnes wasn't interested
in a mass experience.
He was interested
in a quality experience.
- The rooms are intimate.
They are not made
to accommodate
industrial-strength
Smithsonian-sized crowds.
- The Barnes Collection
is arranged not by period,
not by artist,
but by aesthetic values.
- You can see that a Cezanne
and a door lock
and some furniture
are all grouped together.
Well, he had a reason for this.
- It's a completely
different way
of understanding
a work of art
and one's experience
of a work of art.
- We see this collection
with a very interesting
personality stamped on it.
- The Barnes Foundation
is the single most important
American cultural monument
of the first half
of the 20th century.
- From an arts
and cultural point of view,
it is not a little place.
It's an absolutely essential,
critical,
earth-shakingly
important place.
(birds chirping)
(record needle crackling)
(projector whirring)
(brassy jazz music)
- Well, Albert Barnes
I've come to think of
as really
an extraordinary character,
because, I mean, he's--
he tends to be dismissed
as this sort of
a bizarre curmudgeon.
But in fact,
I think he's sort of--
something of a genius.
- Dr. Barnes is
a particular interest of mine
because I'm fascinated
that this working-class man
from Philadelphia
who's boxing to help pay
his university fees,
how this young man creates
one of the most
beautiful collections
of Early Modern art
in the world.
- He was a brilliant kid
who came up out of the smoke
and became very successful.
(Music continues)
- Dr. Barnes made his way into
the University of Pennsylvania
and then its medical school.
He realized
that there was a market
for a substitute
for silver nitrate,
which, at that time,
a drop or two was put
in the eyes
of almost every baby born
in America
to protect them
from venereal disease.
- # VD is for everybody #
- The product which Barnes
had come up with
was something called argyrol.
- Barnes marketed something
that solved a huge problem
and, you know,
the wealth that would
come from it--
imagine today that you had
invented, you know,
a cure for AlDS.
Glackens,
a friend from Central High,
who was an artist,
introduced Barnes to art.
Barnes, being
this curious type,
immersed himself in it
in the same way
he immersed himself
in any other objective
scientific problem.
He wanted to learn about it;
he wanted to understand it.
But here he was
in Philadelphia.
And at that rate, Philadelphia
didn't have a clue.
- The money people
who were very conservative
did not have a sense
of progress.
Barnes did.
(accordion music)
- Well, he'd started going
to Paris,
you know, trying to understand
what was happening
with Modern art.
- Barnes's taste
is pretty well formed
in about two or three years,
and he has a feeling
that Renoir and Cezanne
are the pillars
of the Modern movement.
He also then sees
that Matisse and Picasso
are the continuators
of this great tradition.
- Barnes was way ahead
of his time.
He was ahead of his time
artistically, intellectually,
culturally, politically.
He collected some
of the greatest art
in the history of the world
at a time when
the American art establishment
regarded this art
as inaccessible
to audiences
and of little value.
- Just think,
the Museum of Modern Art
was in existence.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art
was in existence.
These were his competitors.
The Met had been around
for 30 years.
It's this extraordinary moment
where one man was able
to buy some
of the very greatest works
before museums were competing,
before MOMA and Philadelphia
and Boston
were actually saying,
"We have to buy these artists
as well."
- There's always been
this tension in the art world
about the Barnes Collection,
because there-- there is this
truly phenomenal collection
that the museum world
can't get their hands on.
(car horns honking)
- We're at Sotheby's
at a preview
for their big lmpressionist
and Modern sale.
(background conversation)
I mean,
there's a Van Gogh there
which is a nice picture
by a great artist.
This is not a great Van Gogh.
They're estimating $35 million.
I suspect in this market,
with this liquidity,
that-- that-- that-- it will go
much higher than that.
It's not Barnes-worthy.
He would have not bought
that Van Gogh,
but it is a Van Gogh.
Barnes wouldn't even look
at that painting.
Some pictures are unattractive
and significant.
Some paintings are attractive
and insignificant.
This is both unattractive
and insignificant.
I mean, the one last night
at $35 million
was a much better painting.
That was a good Matisse.
I don't think it was good enough
for Barnes to buy.
And the Cezanne here is...
not even a shadow
of a Barnes Cezannes.
This is estimated
at $7 million to $9 million.
I couldn't even hang it
in the same room
as The Card PIayers.
But The Card PIayers
would be probably beyond
certainly any
individual's capacity.
I mean, how much money
is in any one place?
The Getty couldn't afford it.
You'd need some sort
of a nation to buy it.
- Now 0011.
- You're gonna see prices
in the contemporary sales
that will make your head spin.
- Let's start the bidding
at $20 million,
at $20 million here,
$20 million.
- For things
that are not even scarce,
Iet alone important.
- $35 million and fair warning.
Last chance.
Selling then for $35 million.
(gavel clacks)
- There certainly aren't
any collections
Iike the Barnes anywhere anymore
in private hands.
(soft piano music)
- What is a collection
Iike this worth?
- Oh.
(sighs)
Look, there's some things
in the collection that...
one can't even begin
to calculate.
I-- I-- I could go through
the inventory,
painting by painting,
and a lot of them
I could come up with
some kind of a number.
But some things in there,
I just--
nobody could figure out.
The Matisse La Danse,
nobody could figure out
what that's worth.
We don't know.
There's been nothing like it.
There never will be.
(sighs)
It's worth billions.
I have no idea what it's worth.
The Cezanne Card PIayers,
I mean, what is it worth?
$500 million,
or the other one $500 million?
I mean, we're talking
about billions and billions.
(Music continues)
- The initial exhibition
of the Barnes art
took place in 1923
in Philadelphia when Barnes
exhibited the collection
at the Academy of Fine Arts.
Barnes had great faith
in his native abilities
and his eye.
He knew that he was
in the major leagues
of collecting the greatest
post-lmpressionist art.
- He was passionate about
pictures, you know, passionate.
And there was a passion
in sharing it too.
(dramatic music)
(Music continues)
- The art critics,
The Philadelphia Inquirer
and other people,
they just trashed
the collection.
They said,
"Oh, this is not art;
this is scribbling."
- It was greeted
with caustic outcries
from the traditional stuffy
Philadelphia art critics.
And Barnes was dismayed.
I mean, he was just dismayed
to have these provincial yahoos
who thought of themselves
as sophisticated art critics
just denounce him.
I think it must have had
a profound influence
in his dealings with them
for the rest of his life.
- He determined
that never, never
would they get their hands
on this art.
(ominous music)
(Music continues)
- A principal reason
that he established
his foundation where he did
was to get it away from
the downtown interests
in Philadelphia
that ruled the city,
from the newspaper
to the art museum.
- He talks about
in one of his books
rich people using artwork
as upholstery for their homes.
He didn't want that to happen
with this.
The other robber barons
were busy making monuments
to themselves.
Barnes wanted to make something
that would educate,
so he used his collection
to form a school.
He really wanted to be taken
seriously as an educator
and that this project
be seen seriously
as a real new step
in Modern education.
Dewey recognized that.
He was a very
serious philosopher,
and one of America's
great contributions
to philosophy and education,
really embracing
what Barnes was doing.
- If you've spent time
at the place
and you've gotten a sense
of what it's about,
you know that it's a very,
very important place.
And it's not important
just because it has
great, great paintings.
The entire thing
is the realization
of a set of ideas.
Dr. Barnes created this
perfectly appropriate building
in the midst of
a beautiful garden and grounds.
Barnes there assembled
works of art
from all over the world
and from all different times,
and he put them
on an equal plane.
And he arranged it
in such a way
so that the art speaks
to each other in a certain way.
It says something
about humans everywhere.
It says we're the same.
It says
that African-Americans
are no different
than Latin-Americans
and Asians.
We experience life in,
you know, in the same way.
We show it in different ways,
but the basic fundamental
experience of life is the same.
This is one of the many things
that they say
at the Barnes Foundation
that makes so much sense--
that art isn't something
separate from life.
It is life.
(birds chirping)
(rock music)
(Music continues)
- Years later, the artwork
had come to be
recognized as important.
Everyone was so offended
that they couldn't go
because it was closed
on a Monday and,
"How dare you?
I've shown up
with my chauffeur."
Well, fuck it.
Barnes didn't really care
about your chauffeur.
He had a school to run,
and he saw that very seriously.
(Music continues)
- The hatred of Barnes
in Philadelphia was fierce.
- People didn't like him
'cause he insulted people.
- He didn't have much regard
for Philadelphia society.
- Oh, Dr. Barnes was
extremely inflammatory
towards his contemporaries.
- He liked to fight,
but I don't think
he would pick on anybody small.
It was always...
- Somebody would write,
would say,
"I'm the art critic
of The New York Times.
Can I come in
to see the art? "
And Albert Barnes would write,
"No,"
and he'd have his dog
sign the letter.
But if you said,
"I'm a plumber in New York City
and I want to come see
this art,"
he'd say, "Okay, come in."
(Music continues)
- Barnes never forgot,
no matter how rich he was,
that he'd grown up a poor boy
in turn-of-the-century
Philadelphia,
and this set him at odds
not only with the arts
and culture community
but with
the political community.
He was a New Deal
liberal Democrat.
This particularly put him
at odds
with the family that owned
The Philadelphia Inquirer,
which was clubbable
and muffled and Waspy.
(Music continues)
(man whistling)
The Inquirer was the organ
of Moses Annenberg
and his son,
Walter Annenberg.
Here is a bona fide plutocrat,
a right-wing Nixonian,
as he later would be,
ambassador to the court
of St. James.
It's like gone back
to wearing knee breeches
and these ridiculous costumes.
How more ludicrously right-wing
could you possibly be?
This man who liked
to phone Richard Nixon
in the middle of the night
and share jokes together.
- Barnes and he were always
at odds, always fighting.
The Philadelphia Inquirer was
always attacking Albert Barnes
for not opening it
to the public,
not doing the things
they thought it should do,
but he did the things
he thought he should do.
And it was his art.
Why couldn't he do
what he wanted?
- One of the problems
with Walter Annenberg is,
his father
was a gangster, okay?
He went to jail
for tax evasion,
which is what all gangsters
go to jail for
unless you can really
catch them, you know,
with the knife in their hand.
- In the end, the feds agreed
to give his young
callow son Walter
a pass if the old man
copped out and took
a longer term.
So his father was sent off
to federal prison
and was only released as
he was dying of a brain tumor.
And this is something
that Walter Annenberg
never forgave
the Democrats for.
It was often said
that Albert Barnes realized
this lifetime of animosity
from Walter Annenberg
because he said nasty cracks
about Moe Annenberg
and his income tax problems
and, you know, the racetracks
business and the mob.
But there's no doubt
that Walter Annenberg,
who for many, many years
would dominate the world
of Philadelphia journalism,
hated Albert Barnes
with a passion.
(up-tempo string music)
(Music continues)
Barnes was a very,
very, very shrewd person,
and one of the things
that Albert Barnes learned
was the value of a good lawyer,
and Barnes's lawyer is a man
named John Johnson.
Johnson was a great patron
of the art,
whose art today is one
of the cornerstones
of the
Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Now, this, however,
was not as Johnson
had wished it to be,
I might say.
John Johnson intended his art
to be seen
as a gallery in his home
on Broad Street
in Philadelphia.
- Poor Johnson had said,
"Look, I'm gonna give you
this collection to look at.
"Part of the bargain is,
you know,
keep my end up of it."
- Well, after his death,
the house was demolished
and the paintings were moved
into the Philadelphia Museum
of Art,
where they have been
a cornerstone ever since.
Johnson's art was, in effect,
legally stolen
by the Philadelphia--
the powers that be.
- They argued that the building
was a firetrap
and that the paintings
were a danger
and that they'd be
much better off
in this new building.
"Let's get the paintings
out of there
and bring 'em up
to our new museum."
So, yeah, he got screwed.
- Barnes was so appalled
by this naked thievery
that he became determined
that the political
and arts community
of Philadelphia
would not steal his art.
(dramatic music)
Well, Barnes, as he always did,
he turned to the best lawyers
he could find
to draw up his will.
The goal had always been
to keep the Barnes Foundation
as a freestanding
educational mission,
not to fold the Barnes
into the Philadelphia Museum
of Art,
and certainly not to turn
the Barnes itself
into an art museum.
And it was to be housed
in the building
that Dr. Barnes had put up.
- So he wrote this very sort of
rigorous document.
He said,
"lt shall always be preserved
"as an educational institution.
"lt can be open two or three
days a week to the public,
"but four or five days a week,
"it shall be
solely and exclusively open
"to students and educators
of art.
"The collection
shall never be loaned.
"The collection
shall never be sold.
"The democratic nature
of this institution
shall be preserved
for all time."
- He tried to create
a collection
that was proof against
commercial exploitation.
If it remains
in the same place,
if it simply hangs on a wall,
if it can never be lent,
if it can never be sold,
the commercial exploitation
of it has a value of zero.
- He sought to preserve this
as a school,
so maybe naively,
in perpetuity, right?
But anyone who ever writes
a will or anything like this
thinks it's gonna go on forever.
(dramatic music)
- And so it was--
Barnes was in his roadster,
traveling between
his country place
and his home in Merion,
when he was instantly killed.
(Music continues)
- It was-- it was a shock.
(Music continues)
And I thought,
"l only hope we can keep
the spirit
of Dr. Barnes's ideas alive."
- The question then arises,
as it invariably does,
what did Albert Barnes intend
for the control
of the great
Barnes art collection?
(somber music)
- So then he died in 1951,
and here we have
Violette de Mazia,
one of the great characters
ever, really,
in the art world,
who originally came
to the foundation
to give French classes.
And she becomes
his right-hand person,
his great supporter,
his collaborator,
his disciple,
and she's in charge
basically for 30 years.
- After Dr. Barnes died,
she became president,
and she ran it
the way it had been run before.
- She was just passionate
for teaching.
She poured her life into this.
- Well, hell, it wasn't a job
to Ms. de Mazia and Dr. Barnes
and those of us
who taught there;
it was our life.
We were painters.
We cared about it.
It wasn't just a job.
- Through the Barnes teaching
and Ms. de Mazia teaching,
so many hundreds of people
have said,
"lt has changed my life."
- All I can say is,
the people who took the course
loved it.
And that, to me,
was a satisfactory reason
to perpetuate
the Barnes as it was,
which was a school,
not a museum--
that's very clear
in the trust indenture--
and that the paintings
were hung
for didactic purposes,
and not merely because
it would be the convenience
of people walking into a museum.
- Well, almost immediately after
Barnes's death,
the foundation found itself
subject to a frontal assault
by none other than
The Philadelphia Inquirer
publisher, multimillionaire
Walter Annenberg.
- Annenberg starts
this campaign:
"Oh, the Barnes Foundation
is not letting the public in.
They're violating their tax
status as a charity."
- Annenberg had all the money
in the world,
and he was determined
to crush the Barnes,
and he didn't dare try
to crush the Barnes
when the old man
was still alive
and was a tough nut
to begin with.
(Music continues)
- When they opened up
the foundation--
I never knew it was
in the works.
The day they opened it,
she called me up and said,
"They're letting
the public in."
I think she was in tears.
Well, these people crowded in.
I mean, one guy was out
in an hour.
He said he saw enough
fat ladies for a day.
And that was--
that's the art lover.
- Annenberg is seen
as the guy
who got the attorney general
and the state supreme court
to make the Barnes Foundation
be open to the public
at times that it wasn't supposed
to be.
And so Annenberg is seen
as taking
the first little crack
at Dr. Barnes' trust.
- Once everybody's dead,
they'll do what they want,
and nobody cares
about what it was.
That's why it was important
to me to emphasize
that it's a school.
- Well, I think he always
was worried
that the artwork would become
so valuable
that it would overpower
his educational ideas.
- You know, people see art,
what do they think?
Paintings, money, tourism.
It's become just the norm
for art to be traded
for blockbuster shows,
you know, to trade the art,
move it around, you know,
make money off of it,
and there is all this great art
that the museum world
doesn't have access to.
- We had requests from various
museums around the country.
"Would you please lend us
two paintings?
"We'll pay all the costs,
and we'll send armed guards
and whatever."
And de Mazia said,
right there in the document,
the paintings will never be
removed from the walls,
absolutely no, never.
De Mazia was considered to be
the last living direct apostle
of Dr. Barnes and his method,
and everything went according
to Ms. de Mazia's wishes.
- The atmosphere
had always been,
"It's for the classes;
this is what it's for."
Everything about it
was personal.
De Mazia was
a real personality.
It was a handmade thing
in a machine world
as long as she was alive.
(dramatic music)
(Music continues)
- When she died, she was,
as I said, 89.
She died on a Friday
in September at 1:40.
(chuckles)
- Well, everything changed
because Ms. de Mazia died,
and with her death,
the question then is,
whose hands would inherit
the Barnes?
Barnes was married,
but they had no children,
so no doubt
the academy assumed,
no doubt the University
of Pennsylvania assumed
that they would inherit,
eventually,
control of the foundation.
However, Barnes kept
changing his will--
of this, there's no question--
but he just didn't
tell anyone this.
- Albert Barnes created the
foundation with five trustees
with the power
to control the foundation.
After the last of the trustees
that he had appointed died,
ultimately they elect de Mazia.
Now, the rub then became,
"Who gets to appoint them? "
- As everyone knows,
Barnes was a misanthrope.
He had his delicate ego
badly bruised
by the Philadelphia
establishment,
and he had a long
and difficult memory.
- Ultimately, his will left
the control
of the great Barnes art
to Lincoln University.
- When he got Lincoln there,
it was just the farthest
possible imaginable thing
in the social scene
as it then existed.
- Lincoln was, if you were
a black man in America,
one of the places to go to get
a really quality education
at a time when there was
segregation and whatnot.
- My father was president
of Lincoln University,
and he befriended
Albert Barnes,
and from that friendship
began a relationship
between Lincoln University
and the Barnes collection.
Barnes was one of those
rare Americans
who was openhearted
about black people.
You know, in his factory, he had
an integrated working force
when almost no
industrial operation
in the whole of the country
had that.
And he thought,
maybe in the back of his mind,
"How can I stick my finger
in the eyes
"of the Philadelphia
art establishment?
"I'll show 'em.
I'll give it to this little
black college."
- Whether, you know,
his long-range objectives were,
number one,
just getting revenge
on the Philadelphia
establishment,
I think he said,
"Boy, you know,
I can trust these people.
"They're not part
of that awful establishment
that I hate so much."
- Fast forward to 1990,
Lincoln is this state school
that doesn't get
enough state funding,
that can't raise enough money,
and if you're a trustee
of Lincoln,
why wouldn't you use
this new asset that you have
to raise some money
for your school?
- Franklin Williams,
this diplomat/lawyer,
was made the president
of the Barnes Foundation,
and he really understood,
as probably most of
the Lincoln trustees didn't,
that he and Lincoln
were becoming custodians
of the world's greatest
post-lmpressionist
art collection.
(bluesy rock music)
(Music continues)
- Franklin Williams established
an art advisory committee
of notable people
from around the country
in the art world.
- Franklin Williams wanted
to pick the right people,
so I went back,
and I drew up a list
with all museum people
but very well-known ones.
- Lincoln University felt
it really should look
to the outside
to help it figure out
what to do with this place,
which is a perfectly reasonable
thing for them to have done.
- It would be a resource
to use as they chose,
understanding the terms
and conditions
of Barnes' trust,
and it would have just made
both of them flourish.
It would be...
It's indescribable
what might have happened.
(Music continues)
- Also on the Lincoln board
at this time
was this incredibly
ambitious lawyer
named Richard H. Glanton.
He has designs on being
mayor of Philadelphia,
maybe even senator.
His ambitions know no limit.
Glanton has already been
going around telling people
that he's going to run
the Barnes.
But as I say, between Glanton
and the Barnes
and perhaps many
of his other ambitions
is Franklin Williams.
What no one could have
anticipated is
that almost immediately
upon becoming
president
of the Barnes Foundation,
diplomat/lawyer
Franklin Williams
discovers he has a very virulent
form of cancer
and within the year is dead.
(Music continues)
- When I came there,
the perception was that
this dummy is fresh meat
for us to devour,
and he's just
a smart political guy,
but he doesn't know anything
about art,
so we'll rule while he reigns.
And...
(chuckles)
I was not born that way.
- I got a call
from Richard Glanton,
who said,
"Why don't I meet you
"at the Union League
and let me buy you lunch
and pick your brain? "
So I said, "Sure, why not? "
He said, "I've got big plans
for the Barnes.
We're gonna make
a lot of money."
And I said,
"Why do you need money?
"We've got the original
$10 million in there.
"It's yielding a couple
hundred thousand a year,
"more than we need
to run the place.
What's the point
of all of this? "
And Glanton says,
"I'm gonna put this whole thing
on the map.
"I'm gonna do whatever it takes
"to build up as much money
as I can get.
"Don't worry, Dave.
I've got it all figured out."
"Oh, okay.
"Well, you know, if that's
the way you're gonna run it...
"You're a majority
of the trustees now.
But thanks for lunch."
- Mrs. de Mazia,
God bless her soul,
really did the best she could,
but for 50 years
following Barnes's death,
or 40 years,
the money was mismanaged.
The building had
water running in it.
All of the windows
were just rotting.
The HVAC system didn't work.
- We've got
conservation problems.
We've got, you know--
we need climate control,
all of which, frankly,
as a museum person,
seemed perfectly reasonable.
At the time, when we were
on this little committee,
it was very clear
that you could work out
a plan to try
to raise money,
'cause everybody in the world
would want to save
the Barnes Foundation.
So that was what we suggested,
and that's precisely
what Richard Glanton, et al,
did not want to do.
They were about to figure out
how to do something
that was clearly illegal
and unethical,
which is what they did.
(Music continues)
- Richard loved being president
of the Barnes,
and he loved all
of the sidelights of that:
hobnobbing with the rich
and the famous,
including multimillionaire
Walter Annenberg.
- So I called Walter
and said that,
"I'd like to just talk to you
about my ideas at Barnes,"
and he said, "Great."
- Walter Annenberg,
who was a piece of work,
was also an art collector.
First-rate collection
but certainly not
an adventurous collection,
certainly not
an adventurous thinker.
- In the last several months,
I've had two Japanese interests
after me to sell
my whole collection.
My only response has been,
"You're discussing members
of my family,
and I'm hardly about to sell
members of my family."
- Couldn't be more ironic.
Glanton and Walter Annenberg
hit upon the idea
of selling Barnes' art.
- I said,
"l want to raise the funds
"to restore the gallery
"to ensure
the long-term preservation
of the collection,"
and the way that I would do this
would be to deaccession
a number of paintings
to raise sufficient cash
to cover the cost
of the restoration."
And he immediately said,
"That's a great idea."
- You know, Glanton
basically did for Annenberg
what he wanted to do.
He made it totally accessible
to him,
and he was gonna rip it apart
for him.
Up until then,
Annenberg was coming in
trying to undo from the outside.
Now what you had was trustees,
the Barnes trustees
from the inside.
The Barnes board itself
was saying,
"Oh, we're in dire
financial straits.
"We need to undo
this indenture.
Let us sell the collection."
- I have nothing against
buying and selling art.
If there's no legal reason
not to do it, it's fine.
Dr. Barnes did not say
that was okay,
and therefore
it isn't discussable
as far as I'm concerned.
- We were outraged.
Glanton didn't care.
And then when we objected,
he fired the whole
Art Advisory Board.
- The response of the art world
was fast and furious.
There was a huge uproar.
Anybody with any familiarity
of the cultural world
knew that it was absolutely
the last thing that anyone
with any knowledge
of a cultural organization
would do.
- So even though there was
sort of a big push to do that,
didn't happen,
because the museum community
got against it.
- Having now failed to convince
either the court
or his partners
on the Barnes board
to allow him to sell art
or to rent art
or deaccession art,
he now comes up
with a moment of genius.
(frantic string music)
- When Richard started
publicly saying
that the foundation
had to raise money--
and this is where he started
this suggestion,
the fiasco plan
of announcing
that he would sell
some of the art--
in order to justify that,
he said,
"Come on, I'll show you."
And so I took a tour with him
from basement to attic
of the foundation
and wrote a story about it.
- And so day after day,
week after week,
usually with Richard Glanton
as the humble boy scout
taking Lucinda Fleeson,
girl reporter,
through the boiler room
and on top of the roof,
readers of The Inquirer
were treated to the saga
of the poor old
Barnes Foundation,
and it was gonna take
millions of dollars
to fix up the Barnes.
Otherwise
these paintings would just--
they were just gonna
fall off the wall.
- We're working on fear here,
right?
Weapons of mass destruction,
leaky roof.
It's funny, but it sounds like
the Johnson story.
"The building's falling apart."
That was the beginning
of the story
of why we can undermine
Dr. Barnes's will.
(rock music)
- Thank you to Lucinda Fleeson
and The Inquirer,
he has this marvelous excuse
to persuade the court
that the building is
in such disrepair
that it's going to have to be
closed down
for a couple of years.
"Let me take the Barnes art
on tour
and charge other museums
for the privilege."
- As a lawyer, there is
a provision in the trust
that provided
that in fact you could change.
It's called cy pres.
You can change a provision
if it's necessary
to carry out
the donor's intent
to the least extent possible.
- If you can't do exactly
the terms of the will--
there's the term--
French term cy pres,
cy pres
c'est possible--
as near as possible
do what the donor wanted.
And how in the world
can they fucking think
that this is near as possible--
This is exactly
what he didn't want.
Every...every ounce of it
is what he didn't want.
- I was told by everybody
that it couldn't be done;
it wouldn't be done.
Nobody will do it.
I said, "Well...
(chuckling)
We're gonna do this."
- # You do what you have to #
# And not what you're told #
(Music continues)
- Given the quality
of the collection,
it created headlines
wherever it went.
It created crowds
wherever it went
and it created money
wherever it went.
And all of that was like
shoveling coal into the furnace
until the fire was raging.
(Music continues)
- Everywhere the art went,
Richard Glanton went,
and everywhere
that Richard Glanton went,
he was honored.
- I was treated
like a conquering hero
in Paris and Toronto
and Fort Worth, Texas.
Dinner, seated at the table
with Princess Di.
An invitation for her
to come to the Barnes.
Letters from her.
It was literally unbelievable.
I think it was
the greatest exhibition
in the history
of Western civilization.
(Music continues)
(music fades)
(piano and orchestral music)
- The Barnes art now returned
to great fanfare and a...
well, I was gonna say
the biggest finger in the eye
that you could imagine,
but I think that was saved
for later, but...
(Music continues)
A showing at the
Philadelphia Museum,
the archenemy,
Satan's lair,
reveling in their possession,
temporary though it was,
of the Barnes art.
- This was the great slap
to Barnes, was that,
"Well, we have to show
the paintings
in Philadelphia too."
Well, why?
Basically, it raised a lot
of money for the art museum.
They had a big Barnes show
at the art museum here,
and they made a lot of money
on the back of it.
- Everybody involved in this
had their own interests.
The only person
whose interest had no champion
was Albert Barnes.
Everyone had abandoned him.
- You know, the paintings
come back from the tour,
and Glanton wants to have
this big party.
Glanton's using it
exactly the way
Barnes didn't want it
to be used,
which was as a sort
of social backdrop thing.
I mean, we're talking all
of the, like,
wealthy people
from Philadelphia,
with their Rollses
and all their stuff,
came to the party,
and they're just all up and down
tiny, little Latches Lane.
- The Philadelphia swells
came down in droves.
And once again, Richard Glanton
basked in the reflected glow
of the Barnes art.
But what he didn't reckon with
was the neighbors.
- Chaos.
It was absolute chaos.
Nothing had ever happened
like that
in the 18 years
we had lived here.
Was this the first of many?
Was this-- our neighborhood
has now changed to this?
(Music continues)
- The Barnes Foundation
has been here
for over 70 years,
Iived in perfect harmony
with the neighborhood
for all these years,
and all of a sudden, it becomes
the Super Bowl venue for art.
- This is from Quebec also.
This is three buses today
from Quebec.
- Our neighborhood
was completely clogged
top to bottom.
Five days a week,
thousands of people a week
were coming and parking
and eating on my lawn
and parking in my driveway.
I mean, it happened
to all of us.
- My kitchen sink
faces the Barnes,
and I guess I spend
half my life at the sink.
So every time I saw a bus,
I would run out with the camera
and videotape it.
I don't know
how you pronounce that,
but that's how I feel.
Richard Glanton referred to me
that he was being harassed
by the KGB.
That was me--
I felt very powerful
for a moment.
- I'd brought the Barnes
out of the Dark Ages
and opened it up,
and it's weird
that a few people
refused to accept that.
- We went to the township
to see about fast-tracking
permission
to build a parking lot.
And Richard very much wanted
this parking lot fast-tracked
at this point.
- You're operating
a commercial museum
in a residential neighborhood.
And putting a parking lot in,
at that time,
would have made it easier
for you to operate
a commercial museum
in a residential neighborhood.
- Questions?
- We went
to a township meeting.
All the neighbors went
to the township meeting,
and people made speeches
at the meeting.
I got up,
and in my speech,
I said, I understood now
how a carpetbagger works.
And a carpetbagger
is someone who comes in
from another jurisdiction,
and, in fact, they call judges
carpetbaggers
when they do that,
and referring to Mr. Glanton
and his management team.
I referred to Mr. Glanton
and his people,
and that was the end of it.
- The township said
that they couldn't fast-track
a parking lot.
Richard was not happy
with that response.
- It wasn't about the cars
or the traffic.
It was about something else.
It was about being hostile.
I don't know why.
You know, I just said,
"This is enough.
I mean, I'm just gonna bring
this lawsuit."
(frantic instrumental music)
- Dr. Herman brought me
to his house,
and he said,
"Bob, I have something,
but I need you to sit down."
I had no idea
what he was talking about.
Because of my use of the word
"carpetbagger"
and "his people,"
they used those two phrases
as the basis
for a civil rights action.
- Glanton ordered
the Barnes's lawyers
to begin preparations
for a suit
against the Lower Merion
township commissioners
and the neighbors
under the federal
Ku Klux Klan Act.
- They accused us of conspiracy
with the township
to deprive them
of their rights
but motivated
by racial grounds.
- They compared not only me,
but they compared others of us
to Hitler.
They showed pictures of people
being lynched in South Carolina
and associated that
with the neighbors.
And I'm thinking,
"What the devil did I do?
I got up,
and I was concerned
that I have buses
and I can't get out
of my driveway.
What am I doing here
in the middle
of something like this,
being called Hitler? "
- All over Philadelphia
in law firms
hither and thither,
the legal fees
on all sides mounted.
And the Barnes's already skimpy
endowment was being drained.
It was just being drained.
- They get all this money spent
sending the collection
to Paris and Tokyo
and God knows where and...
and made a huge pile of money,
which then was all...
I don't want to say
"pissed away."
I should say something
more appropriate.
You can cut that one out, okay?
- Richard Glanton thought
that we were just gonna fold
and say, "We drop out.
We're dropping out."
He just picked
the wrong neighbors.
- Eventually, the entire case
was thrown out.
Judge Brody said there was not
one scintilla of racial animus
in any of the evidence
the Barnes presented.
- In this particular situation,
there's not ever a comment made
about us that does not--
preceded by the word "hostile."
- Their PR firm has maintained
that we harassed them.
The PR firm has maintained
that we sued them.
I mean, if that's what people
are gonna believe,
that we harassed them
and that we are devious,
terrible people...
we've given up trying.
- Over a zoning board issue
was the Ku Klux Klan Act
invoked.
And the mischief that followed
is incalculable.
I mean, thus the whole story
turns on the tale
of a 52-car parking lot.
The president
of Lincoln University
is desperate to get Glanton
out of there,
and in her fury
over the dismissal
of the Ku Klux Klan suit,
she prepared a draft letter
to the trustees
of the Barnes Foundation
suggesting that it was time
to rotate the presidency.
- People can have
their own views.
They're entitled to them.
But, uh...my story is
that it was a second rebirth
of Barnes
during my tenure as president.
I tried to do something
real quick
that was different,
because it had to be done.
And I knew I had no time
to mess around because--
What was that dog's name?
Cerebus, who guards
the gates of hell--
Was after me.
I had been approached about
turning the Barnes over
to the Philadelphia
Museum of Art
on at least two occasions,
and I was approached
about turning it over
to some other institutions
on other occasions.
But I had no intention
of reigning
while somebody else ruled,
and that was, in their view,
the end of me.
They laid the groundwork,
saying the money
that was spent on the lawsuits
ruined the Barnes,
which is not true.
It had more money than it had
when I came in
and a new building.
- Curiously, Glanton said to me
at the time
that-- and this is
not quite how he put it--
but that he was the bulwark
against the establishment
stealing the Barnes.
And in a perverse way,
I think Richard Glanton was
absolutely correct about that.
- I was just like,
"Okay, here are the keys.
"Go do your master's bidding.
Run it into the ground,
into a wall."
And literally, that's what
I wrote the attorney general.
I said, "They're gonna run it
into a brick wall."
- I'm sure I saw the letter.
I'm not gonna say
that his predictions
were accurate, per se.
But once he left,
there was not
the same level of drive
with those who remained.
And in the long run, I thought
that was gonna continue
to drag the Barnes down.
(dramatic music)
(Music continues)
(soft piano music)
- And so there we were,
with the Barnes board,
minus Richard Glanton,
with the Barnes's
already parlous endowment
reduced to virtually nothing.
- Barnes Foundation,
without any funds,
without an effective
leadership, is, you know,
sitting in this building
as a sitting duck.
So these forces began
to line up
and work towards something
that had absolutely nothing
to do with what Barnes wanted,
with the agreement
between Barnes
and the state of Pennsylvania
embodied in a legal document.
All of that was sort of
left in a drawer
while politicians
and billionaires
and cultural mavens
and foundations got busy.
- The Barnes was given
just enough money
by the foundations
so that they could claim
that they were trying
to help
the poor ol' Barnes out.
But that was never,
in my opinion, the goal.
- Foundations are
non-profit corporations.
We're used to hearing about
corporate takeovers
with for-profit corporations.
But this was a non-profit
corporate takeover.
And the first thing
you have to do
is remake the board of trustees
so you have a compliant board
who is on your side.
- In the period after
Richard Glanton was out,
the foundation was
just sort of puttering along.
It was still controlled
by Lincoln.
Four of the five board members
were Lincoln board members.
The president
of the board of trustees
put on the board by Lincoln
was Bernie Watson.
- Watson was very
politically connected,
a professional
foundation executive,
and he was the chairman
of the City Convention Center,
the Tourist Bureau.
- In the midst of that
steps up
these Philadelphia foundations.
They were going
to help them raise--
I think it was $150 million.
From the very beginning,
Pew's thought was,
"Well, we're gonna give
you money.
We're gonna get something
out of it.
We want some control."
- It was pretty clear to me
they weren't just gonna give
without getting control
of the Barnes board.
- Well, if you're
Bernie Watson,
your duty was to maintain
a connection
between Barnes and Lincoln,
because that was part
of the trust indenture.
I mean, what's Lincoln have
to offer for Bernie Watson?
He makes his living
from the sort of institutions
and people who want this thing
to happen.
Watson went ahead
and negotiated a deal
that cut Lincoln out.
The only way for a Pew
or any other foundation
to get control,
to be able
to place board members,
was for the indenture
to be changed,
for them to go to court
and change the rules
that Barnes laid down.
Lincoln didn't have a clue.
Watson and these
Philadelphia foundations
had a plan to basically
push them aside.
Right?
They flipped out.
They got an attorney and tried
to intervene and stop it.
- There were enough people
who were making noises
that the plan was starting
to fall apart to the point
where more aggressive tactics
needed to be employed.
- Ed Rendell, the governor
at the time,
starts to put pressure
on Lincoln, okay?
He's the governor.
He controls the purse strings
of this state-affiliated
institution.
He said,
"Well, look, you know,
"Lincoln, you could be in,
you know, a rosy position
"if you go along
with this thing.
What have you gotten
out of Barnes so far? "
Along with Rendell,
the attorney general decides
that he's gonna help pressure
Lincoln a little bit.
And the thing that he has
is the ability to say,
"You get nothing, Lincoln,
if you guys don't play along."
- I don't know that we were
ever as direct as saying,
"We can take this away
from you,"
because that would take
a court to do that,
but I had to explain
to them that,
you know, maybe
the attorney general's office
would have to take some action
involving them
that might have to change
the complexion of the board.
And whether I said that directly
or I implied it,
I think they finally got
the message.
And when they say--
you mentioned it.
It was portrayed
that I was the bad cop
and the governor
was the good cop.
The governor had the money.
And the governor had some money
he was willing to add onto it,
so that automatically made
him good cop.
There was some money proposed
to-- for Lincoln to offset
some of the perhaps
perceived losses
that they might have.
- As I recall,
it was about $40 million.
And I said, "You tell me
what you want to spend
the $40 million on."
- That's not a whole lot
of money to some schools,
but it's a whole lot of money
to Lincoln University.
I think that was part
of the price
of Lincoln letting go.
- They weren't blackmailed
into agreeing with us at all.
If you ask the board,
I made it abundantly clear
to Mr. Scott and others
that they were getting
this money regardless.
- They pressured the shit
out of 'em.
And in the end, they caved.
What the Philadelphia
foundations did
is what takes place all the time
in the corporate world,
which is to take over the board
by adding new positions
on the board.
You don't go in
and kill all the board members
that are there.
You just put ten more on
so that those five
no longer have a majority.
Watson negotiated a deal
that watered down
Lincoln's participation
in the management
of the foundation.
Yeah, he betrayed Barnes,
I think, first.
But, you know, to the extent
Lincoln put people
on the board thinking,
well, you know,
you're going to keep Lincoln
in the picture,
he betrayed them too.
- They sold Lincoln University
for a shekel.
They sold it down the creek.
And they had no right
to do that.
- And the Philadelphia
establishment--
who he determined
that never would they get
their hands on this art--
now have it in their hands.
- From the public side,
from what, you know, me
and every other
newspaper reader,
the first thing we got was,
"Oh, all these foundations
want to help
the Barnes Foundation."
- The foundation said,
you know,
they're there to serve
public needs.
I mean, they get--
they get tax benefits.
So these places,
whether it's Pew or Annenberg
or anybody else,
they have
public responsibilities.
- The responsibility should be,
"How do you keep this going? "
Not, "How do you exploit this? "
"How do you preserve it? "
(dramatic music)
They didn't say
what their real goal was.
What was their real goal?
(Music continues)
- From NPR news,
this is AII Things Considered.
I'm Michele Norris.
- And I'm Robert Siegel.
After two years
of Iegal battles,
one of the world's
Ieading collections
of Impressionist art
is getting a new home.
Today a Pennsylvania
judge ruled
that the Barnes Foundation
can move its collection
from the suburbs
to a new gallery
in downtown Philadelphia.
(Music continues)
- Dr. AIbert Barnes
made his fortune
selling pharmaceuticals.
He spent it acquiring paintings
by Matisse, Picasso, Renoir,
Cezanne, and other masters.
But two years ago,
the foundation
that oversees the art
announced it was broke.
Since it's prohibited
from selling any of the works
hanging in its
Lower Merion gallery,
it asked for a court's
permission to move the art
to a new gallery
in Philadelphia,
where it could draw
more visitors
and raise more money.
Rebecca Rimel is CEO
of the Pew Charitable Trusts,
one of three philanthropies
that are offering to raise
$100 million for a new gallery
and $50 million to replenish
the foundation's
depleted endowment.
- The judge felt,
and of course we have felt
since the beginning,
that this is not only honoring
the donor's intent,
but making sure
that the collection
will be available
for generations to come.
- Barnes officials
were giddy today
but admitted there was
much work to be done
before the paintings Ieave
Lower Merion for good.
(birds chirping)
- The foundation became
fiscally impossible to sustain
in its current location.
I think it was three or four
executive directors came in
and tried to make the Barnes
financially sustainable
in Lower Merion.
They failed.
- There were very strict limits
on the number of people
who could visit.
The community was very hard
on being sure
those limits were adhered to.
- You've got
this magnificent collection
being hidden away
from the world.
Down in Philadelphia,
ten times more people a day
can be able to see it.
And then it's too small.
It's too small.
The building is too small.
- There is such an emphasis
on preserving
the artistic ensemble method
that Barnes seemed to favor
of hanging and arranging
his paintings.
So I think people
will then have
the kind of experience
that he intended.
- And then you have
the secondary benefit
of what this would do
to continue Philadelphia's drive
to be a great tourism
and destination city.
(alarm clock rings)
- # There's so much to do,
so much to see #
# There's nowhere that
I'd rather be than Philly #
# 'cause Philly's more fun. #
- If you were to add the Barnes
to the Parkway,
there isn't a couple
in the United States
or in Europe or Asia
who's interested
in arts and culture
who wouldn't come
to Philadelphia
for at least a long weekend.
- Visitors here spend
over $17 million a day.
So if you have more visitors,
and my understanding is that,
even looking at it
conservatively,
the Barnes located
on the Parkway
would be able to accommodate
four times as many visitors
per year.
So you can start doing
the math.
- This collection should be
shown to as many people
as humanly possible
in the best,
easiest-to-get-to setting
that we can do.
This was always
a no-brainer for me.
It wasn't a tough decision
at all.
- Book our two-night package
any day of the week
and see why Philly's more fun
when you sleep over.
- These, I would say,
are the key players involved,
the key political backers
and financial backers
of the move:
primarily,
the Pew Charitable Trusts
and its director,
Rebecca Rimel,
in consortium with,
or, as I like to put it,
as part of a cabal,
with the Lenfest Foundation--
that's Gerry Lenfest,
who has a powerful conflict
of interest
as the chairman of the trustees
of the Philadelphia Museum
of Art--
and supported
by Governor Rendell
and Mayor Street
and Leonore Annenberg,
the widow
of the late Walter Annenberg,
who spent much of the last part
of his life
trying to gain possession
of the Barnes.
I'm sure many among them
believe sincerely
that what they're doing will be
for the good of Philadelphia.
- We're going to build
a world-class center
for the fabulous
Barnes collection,
which has no peer
anywhere else on Earth.
And I'm delighted to be
here today with the mayor
to make sure this is done
in the appropriate way
with intelligence, with reason,
and compassion.
(applause)
- My feeling
about Philadelphia is
that it doesn't
do itself justice,
saying we need to be
a world-class city
by stealing an art collection
and bringing it down
to what I call a "McBarnes"
in downtown Philadelphia.
- This is gonna be a great event
for the city of Philadelphia.
It will-- it will attract
literally tens of thousands
of visitors, I'm told,
in a given year.
The Barnes collection on
the Benjamin Franklin Parkway
would have the economic impact
of three Super Bowls
without the beer.
- A city that has any sense
of its own identity
doesn't talk about becoming
a world-class city.
It is what it is.
This is the world class of,
you know, of cheerleading,
of pep rallies and of building
a new baseball stadium
or a convention center.
That's not what art is about.
- I see the people
who are attempting to move
the Barnes Foundation
as vandals.
Tourism and, you know,
generation of money, greed.
And the Barnes Foundation
is an unfortunate victim
of all this bullshit.
- We're at 20th and the Parkway,
where they intend to build
the new Barnes Foundation,
and they're having some kind
of party here,
thinking that they're going
to go ahead with this plan.
So we're here
to confront the people
who are paying for this thing,
so we just wanted them to know
that it's a bad idea.
- Attention, everyone.
Attention.
Welcome, welcome, welcome
to the predator's ball.
Everyone you see around me
and behind me
are participating
in a criminal conspiracy
to bring off
the greatest theft of art
since the Second World War.
What you are witnessing here,
Iadies and gentlemen,
is a theft in broad daylight.
- Here's the governor.
(clamoring and chanting)
- You're not a dictator,
and you're not
in Philadelphia anymore!
(chanting and clamoring)
- Dishonorable!
Edward G. Rendell.
(background conversation)
- We're in an economic crisis.
- The world is Iaughing at us.
Break the trust for no reason.
- Please don't break the trust.
- Excuse me, excuse me.
- No integrity.
- Shame on you!
(clamoring)
Shame on you!
Shame on you!
- We're outside the location
where they're planning to put
the new Barnes museum.
And they're having some sort
of a celebration of that,
which is very annoying.
Philistines!
And we're just sort of
protesting their party
because a lot of these people
don't even realize
what they're doing:
destroying a man's will,
destroying this collection,
which half of 'em
don't even have a clue about.
Have fun now!
Wait till it's your will!
Barnes was married,
never had children,
never had anyone
that could have come in
after the fact and said,
"Hey, you know, you screwed
my grandfather over.
I want the paintings."
The grandchildren
were the students
who showed up 50 years later.
- To anyone who's familiar
with Dr. Barnes's will,
everything that he said
during his lifetime,
this will be destructive
to his creation.
I implore you to vote no.
- The motion passes.
Thank you very much.
- Right now
the Friends of the Barnes
is an organization
with one reason to exist:
to prevent the relocation
of the gallery art collection.
- It's such a great
all-American story.
It's almost a Barnesian story,
you know.
The heroic little guy fighting
the forces of City Hall
and the downtown oligarchy.
That's what Barnes was doing.
- You get a choice here.
You get a choice
to decide to listen
to the folks who live
near the Barnes Foundation,
the people who have been
to school
at the Barnes Foundation.
- We're gonna be happy
to have it,
but thanks for trying.
- Friends of the Barnes
approached the county and said,
"We're struggling here.
"We'd really like you to come
out and be part of this fight
to save the Barnes
in Montgomery County,"
And I think it was that point
that the momentum
began to build,
and that the residents
of Montgomery County
had a feeling that,
"Wait a second,
Philadelphia can't just take
our art."
- So would
the Barnes Foundation,
one of the world's greatest
art collections,
move from the suburbs
to the city of Philadelphia?
- As Fox 29's Gerald Kolpan
explains,
while it appears the Iegal
hurdles have been cleared,
some say, "Not so fast. "
- Montgomery County
and the Iocal group
friends of the Barnes
have retained counsel,
saying that if
the Barnes board
could raise the money
for the move,
they should have been able
to raise the same money
to improve the Barnes
where it is.
There are still unknowns
in this case.
No one knows just how much
it'II cost taxpayers,
and no one knows how hard
Montgomery County
is willing to fight.
- I don't have any respect
for the cultural
and political elite
of Pennsylvania.
You know, these are
grade-B players
who basically are doing
tourism promotion.
This is the Disneyland
of paintings.
That's not what
Dr. Barnes wanted.
My primary goal is
to reopen these proceedings
by filing a petition
and persuading this judge
that there were things
that he didn't know about,
that if he had known
about them,
that the outcome
would have been different.
What happened is,
this became
a feeding trough
for politicians.
- The story is that the Barnes
has to move
in order to be saved.
It's not true.
- People wanted it to happen,
and they assessed
the situation.
They saw what needed to be done
to make it happen,
and they're powerful enough
to do it.
- I'm convinced Judge Ott
is a wonderful judge
and he's gonna do
the right thing,
and when he takes a look
at this, he's gonna find that,
yes, we can survive
in Montgomery County
and that's where
the gallery belongs.
- The move is not a done deal.
As far as I'm concerned,
this a deal coming undone.
- It was a combination
of the establishment forces.
And I think they focused on it
Iike Ahab focused
on the white whale.
And I think the objective
took over,
and I don't think
that anybody there
thinks about Barnes
or alternatives or consequences.
I think that this is the glory
they wish to capture.
- The reason it was permitted
to move to Philadelphia
was because the presentation
by the foundation showed
that it was financially
not feasible
to stay in Montgomery County
and to survive.
- It was going down the tubes,
and there was no soluble answer
to its problems.
- If anybody can't fund
the Barnes,
which is a tiny little budget,
out of the private sector,
then they ought to find
another job.
(birds chirping)
- You can't get
enough people in
because of the restrictions
and the parking problems.
They couldn't get enough people
into the Barnes to see it
to make it even close
to financially workable.
- The truth is, that's not
the way it is anymore.
Lower Merion Township,
on its own, did go ahead,
and they changed the zoning
restrictions.
The township was able to say
to the gallery,
"You're allowed to admit
more persons per day
and open the gallery
more days per week."
So there is real potential here
to bring in more revenue.
There was no movement whatsoever
from the foundation.
So they didn't allow themselves
to take in more visitors
and to gain more revenue.
And the supposition is that
the trustees liked it that way,
because they didn't want people
to feel the ease
of accessing
the Barnes Foundation,
that they wanted people to say,
"Get it out of there,
bring it to Philadelphia,
where we can get into it."
There are a lot of ways
this gallery can remain
in Montgomery County.
There was a deal offered
to the foundation.
We estimated $50 million.
The county would float a bond
for $50 million,
which enables the foundation
to have an endowment,
an ongoing endowment
that would allow it
to remain in Montgomery County.
- You know, in six weeks,
the Barnes Foundation
could have $50 million
in the bank and,
you know, they could--
they could be fine.
- This was all opened up
to the foundation
for purposes of negotiation.
There's a way
we can make this work.
We had a response back from
the foundation outright saying,
"We're not interested in this."
There's got to be a reason
that they're not interested
in responding to that.
- They never wanted
to raise money.
They wanted this place
to go bust.
They wanted it to go bust
so that they would have a reason
to bring people in,
to dissolve the indenture,
because they could then argue
that they couldn't operate
on the basis of the indenture,
and then that would give--
they could do it with impunity
and then get autonomy
to operate the way they wanted.
- So anybody that tells me
there wasn't the money
to keep it where it is...
is nonsensical.
The forces wanted it moved
no matter what.
(dramatic music)
(Music continues)
- It's fair to say
that there was a vast conspiracy
to move the Barnes.
This obviously involved
the three lead foundations,
the politicians, mayors,
governors, state senators.
Everybody on that side
of the equation was powerful,
and they had something to gain.
I think the real question,
as I've always said is,
"When did the planning
for this takeover first begin,
and who was the lead figure? "
That's the story
that no one's really told.
(music slows, reverses)
(Music continues)
- In 1995, after sending
the collection on tour,
the paintings came back
to Merion.
There was a gala dinner
to celebrate this
at which a local billionaire,
Ray Perelman,
had a little idea.
- A man by the name
of Ray Perelman,
who was then, I think,
chairman of the board
of the art museum,
came to see me
probably in the middle
of my eight years as mayor
and suggested
that I get active in trying
to convince the state
to move the Barnes for...
The art museum wanted to,
obviously,
to run it, the benefits
to the city of Philadelphia,
et cetera, et cetera,
et cetera.
So that was probably '95, '94,
'96, in that area.
- My only personal contact
with Ray Perelman
was to have him scream
at me over the phone
while at the same time
taking credit
for the decision
to move the Barnes
to downtown Philadelphia.
Ray Perelman is a nasty old man.
Spell my name right
and make sure he knows
that I'm the one who said that.
Barnes did something that
they will never be able to do.
Ray Perelman does not have
an eye for art.
He never will.
And I can understand
he feels bad about that.
He can't do much about it
besides take it
out of the hands
of the Barnes Foundation.
Part of what Perelman
was taking credit for
was convincing anyone
with any power in Philadelphia
to either side with him
or not to oppose him.
Is that a conspiracy?
I don't know.
One man's conspiracy is another
man's political consensus.
- Why wouldn't the great
foundations of Philadelphia
want to save
the Barnes Foundation
exactly where it is?
I mean, they are
Philadelphia institutions.
They should want to preserve
a Philadelphia institution
as a really original
institution.
Why wouldn't they want
to do that?
- One of the nation's Iargest
private foundations
is now a charity.
The Pew Charitable Trusts
control $4 billion in assets.
The change in status
will save Pew
millions of dollars in taxes
and it will have
fewer restrictions
on how it can spend
its money...
- One of the other things
we didn't know
was that Pew was in the process
of converting itself
for tax reasons
from a private charity
into a public charity.
- One thing that
a public charity has to do
is demonstrate that it has
the capacity to raise money,
very large sums of money.
- Pew also cited another
potential tourist draw:
a new building
for the Barnes Foundation
in downtown Philadelphia.
Pew's CEO, Rebecca Rimel,
says the new charity
could not only raise money
for the move,
but administer those funds
at no cost to the project.
- The Barnes was one example
of what we could do
as a public charity
that we can't do
as a private foundation.
- Coincidentally,
Pew stepped forward and said,
"We would be happy to be
the lead foundation
"to assemble the funds
to facilitate the move
of the Barnes Foundation."
- Our application to become
a public charity
had absolutely nothing to do
with the Barnes.
- You know, in court,
Rebecca Rimel said,
"Oh, you know,
the Barnes Foundation,
that's nice,
but that's not why we did it."
Well, you go look at
their application to the lRS,
that's all they talk about
is the Barnes Foundation.
- In its filings with the lRS
and the Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania,
it specifically alludes
to being the leading force
behind moving the Barnes art
into Philadelphia.
- Look,
charity is big business.
If you're really in it
for altruism,
you're gonna be a pink lady
in a hospital.
You're going to be, you know,
going out feeding the poor
from your church's
outreach group.
These people are power brokers.
Don't for one minute think
that if Rebecca Rimel
finds that,
"Well, I now have $400 million
a year to give away
"and manipulate various things
in the state or in the city,
"with what clout I have,
boy, can you imagine
"how much clout I'll have
"with a billion a year
to give away
instead of only 400 million? "
- And, I might add,
it was in the filings
that for the first time
we discovered
that Pew had now estimated
that the value
of the Barnes art was not,
as Glanton had thought,
$41/2 billion,
or I had thought,
$61/2 billion.
But according to the Pew,
it was 25 to $30 billion
worth of art.
The three foundations
never said
that they would give
$150 million.
They said they would raise
$150 million.
Even if they gave $150 million,
it's the greatest bargain maybe
in the history of the art world,
to get $25 billion worth
of irreplaceable
post-lmpressionist masterpieces
for what, for them,
is a drop in the bucket.
- On a Friday
in October of 2006,
I got an email...
from someone within
the Friends of the Barnes
saying that squirreled away
in the 2001-2002 budget
of the state of Pennsylvania
was $107 million:
$7 million for upgrades
of the Merion property,
$100 million
for the move downtown.
(somber music)
- It's amazing to me
that in the case
I called the appropriation
"the immaculate appropriation,"
because it had no father
or mother.
Nobody knows who asked
to put the money in.
So maybe it was
divine inspiration.
We don't know.
- The budget bill is a very
thick piece of legislation,
and 99% of the other members
of the General Assembly,
I'm sure,
didn't know when they voted
on that capital budget bill
that particular project
was in there.
- It was never publicized,
the judge didn't know,
but the people who were trying
to take over the foundation,
within that group of people...
It's-- it would be unbelievable
that nobody knew.
The rescue operation said,
"We will raise $100 million
"to build a new building
in downtown Philadelphia
for the Barnes Foundation."
The state budget
allocated $100 million
to build a new building
for the Barnes Foundation
in downtown Philadelphia.
What a coincidence,
a shocking coincidence.
- All the big-money people
connected with this project,
you can't tell me
that nobody knew
$100 million
was in the budget.
Some senator didn't wake up
and decide,
"I'm just gonna do this."
Somebody with influence
got that put in there.
Whoever that person was--
or people or institution--
never let on in court
that that money was available.
Here you come to court,
and you say, "We're broke.
"There's no other way
we can raise the money.
We got to move
this collection."
Had the judge known that,
oh, the state could put up
$100 million,
it would have been
a whole nother story.
- Rebecca Rimel professes,
"We didn't have anything
to do with it," okay?
But all these people that would
be the beneficiaries--
I mean, you have to understand,
The Pew Trusts, at the same time
that this is going on,
filed for public charity status.
But in order to show
that you're a public charity,
you have to be getting money
from the public.
- The Pew Charitable Trust
at the time
was worth $4 billion.
Who in their right mind
is gonna give money
to a $4 billion foundation?
- Apparently, for some reason,
Governor Rendell
has taken the position
that this is
an important project
for the city of Philadelphia
and has allocated $25 million
of taxpayer money
out of that $100 million
authorization for the project.
- One of the neat things
if you're a public charity is,
you can administer money
from all sorts of places,
including the Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania.
Pew gets credit for that as,
"We raised public money."
That counts towards
their tax status.
I'm not quite so naive
as to believe
that no one knew about
$107 million.
Maybe it was a typo.
I don't know.
But she didn't know anything
about this.
- People involved
in the takeover
of the Barnes Foundation
knew that it was there
and kept that information
from the court.
- Is that a linchpin?
Yeah.
It's like, what are
the surrounding circumstances
that should have been brought
to the attention of this judge?
If I had been a judge,
which probably
no one would like,
I would have, if I had learned
about this, I'd say,
"You know what?
"These proceedings
are recessed.
"The parties should
go figure out how to get
a piece of that money to keep it
right here."
- If I was Judge Ott,
I'd be furious.
I'd be looking for a way
to turn this thing around.
Because he got taken for a ride.
I don't know many judges
that like to get duped
in their courtrooms.
I don't know many judges
that like to be made fools of.
Judge Ott was made a fool of
by these people.
(birds chirping)
- So you see all these
interlocking relationships,
and if I were
a conspiratorial figure,
I'd think an enormous conspiracy
is at work here,
of moneyed interests
to have their will,
to have their way,
to manipulate the treasury
of the State of Pennsylvania,
to manipulate the legal system
of Pennsylvania,
to manipulate Dr. Barnes'
desires and wishes,
to manipulate
Lincoln University,
to play on this needy
little college
so desperate for money
and know that $50 million would
blind their eyes
to what was really
in their grasp.
- I just think they wanted
to capture the prize,
and the whole establishment
mobilized to that end.
They don't like to have
the whole thing questioned.
I think they're used
to getting their way,
and this is the way,
and if you question it,
you're standing in the way.
- If any major figure within
the Philadelphia art world
wanted to speak
against this idea,
they could kiss the
Pew Charitable Trust good-bye.
They could kiss
the Lenfest Foundation good-bye.
They could kiss the
Annenberg Foundation good-bye.
Perhaps they could kiss
their own job good-bye.
No one could speak.
- Yeah, but the news is
in here, right?
- Sir, that's all I'm asking.
- I'm asking--
I'm just asking a question.
- And I'm telling
you an answer.
- You're not giving me
an answer.
Are news crews allowed in
or no?
- If the news
are allowed in, though,
and we are part of the press,
then we should be allowed inside
with the rest of the press.
- No, no, those press
are invited; you are not.
- Right,
they're invited guests.
- So even though the mayor's
office said it was
open to the press
and that we could come...
- You're not invited.
Please step out of...
Please step out.
- People in museums in New York,
in San Francisco,
in Chicago and Dallas
and other places
didn't say a goddamn word
while all this was going on.
I think they were scared.
They were frightened
of these foundations
who are benevolent
and give great sums of money
to all kinds of causes.
Some of them have supported
the NAACP.
And I've often wondered
if I'm not endangering
my organization
by complaining about
their bad behavior in this case.
- You know, I'm afraid.
I realize I'm putting some part
of my life and my livelihood
at risk by doing this.
I don't know how they would
come after me,
but if they wanted to,
you know,
they can make anybody's life
difficult that they want to.
- The forces that, in effect,
are keeping the Barnes hostage
are almost overwhelming.
You could ask
the simple question,
"Who speaks for the art
or the legacy of Dr. Barnes
"when so many powerful political
and economic forces
are at work against it? "
- (clears throat)
(ignition starts)
(soft piano music)
(Music continues)
- Yeah, it's a big day.
Today's oral arguments,
which means what--
what both sides
have already said
to the judge in writing
they're gonna repeat,
you know, in front of him.
And he'll decide
whether to grant our petition
and convene some hearings
to decide whether
the Barnes Foundation
should still be permitted
to move downtown,
or he'll pretty much,
in essence,
throw us out of court,
and that will be bad news.
(Music continues)
- It's all
in Stanley Ott's hands.
If Stanley wants to undo it,
he can undo it.
He can say that he was given
a lot of baloney
the first time through
and the record
can now be set straight
and it deserves
to be set straight.
And I think he's a good enough
judge to make that decision.
- We have an obligation to do
what Dr. Barnes
wanted us to do,
and I think that's the essence
of this whole thing,
that not enough was done
to fully explore
what can be done
to keep the Barnes where it is.
Some people, like the Friends
of the Barnes,
aren't gonna let that happen,
and hopefully,
they'll be successful.
- Unfortunately,
the thing has gotten to be
a big political football,
and it never should have
gotten there.
- In that sense, Richard Glanton
was absolutely right.
Glanton said, when I asked him
what it's all about, he said,
"It's about who controls
$41/2 billion worth of art,
and everything else
is bullshit."
Well, no, Richard was wrong.
It's about who controls
$25 billion worth of art,
and everything else
is bullshit.
(Music continues)
(birds chirping)
(traffic whooshes)
- Well, Wednesday night,
I got home
and there was an email
on my computer,
the subject heading
that Judge Ott
had issued his decision.
He apparently has decided
that he's not going to conduct--
he's not going to investigate
any of the...
any of the matters
that our petition brought
to the court's attention.
He had declined
to order new hearings
by declaring that none
of the petitioners,
that is, the Friends
of the Barnes Foundation
and Montgomery County,
had standing to intervene
in the matter.
(drill whirs)
(siren blares)
I don't think that the judge
or the trustees
of the Barnes Foundation
or anybody who's
supporting the move,
who sincerely supports the move
of the gallery art to downtown,
that they understand what it is
that they're doing.
It'll be a tragedy,
and it'll be
a tragedy long remembered.
This is not some minor thing.
It's not often in life
you get to really try hard
for something
you deeply believe in,
and I've gotten a chance
to do that.
I would've much rather be
celebrating this than...
whatever the opposite
of celebrating is-- mourning.
(Music continues)
- So the city
gets its tourist venue.
The governor does too.
The governor makes his friends
at Pew happy.
Pew gets to control the art.
Gerry Lenfest
of the Lenfest Foundation
is chairman of the museum.
The museum finally,
in effect, gets the art.
It's virtually an appendage.
And Annenberg people get
Walter and Leonore's dream.
And if it's not the destruction
of the Barnes Foundation,
what is it?
- Sort of expect
that there will be
an Annenberg and a Lenfest
and a Pew wing
of this new Barnes building.
And at some point Barnes
will somehow be, like I said...
You get-- you can probably get
a sweatshirt or something
with his name on it,
but that'll be about it.
- Maybe that's a way of having
Philadelphia come back
to the forefront and be
one of the leading cities.
It'll be the leader in showing
people how to break trusts
and how to break-- how to break
trusts with the public.
You know, maybe that's a good,
new role for Philadelphia.
They can have, you know--
ring a special Liberty Bell
for it.
- And I think not only
will Barnes be violated
by having it moved,
he'll be violated
in the experience
he wanted you to have,
and that's important,
because it was his art;
it belonged to him.
He had the right to do with it
as he chose.
And these people,
these vandals, stepped in
and took it away from him.
- These are not people
who are concerned about the art.
These are people who are
concerned about money and power.
And who would destroy what is...
a perfect jewel box...
and also a kind of
a living piece of history?
You know,
to walk into the Barnes
is to see the art as Barnes,
for all of his greatness
and all of his foibles, had it,
And it is, in its way...
perfection.
(dramatic music)
Matisse said
it was the only sane place
to see art in America.
I'll wager Matisse
against Bernie Watson
and Rebecca Rimel any day,
and I bet Dr. Barnes
would too.
I think he might say,
"Let Matisse speak for me."
(pensive music)
(Music continues)