May 29, 2003 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Art Held Hostage: the Story of the Barnes Collection
by John Anderson
This book recounts the turbulent history of the Barnes Foundation, outside Philadelphia, which administers a collection of art valued at more than $6-billion. The Pennsylvania nonprofit organization, says John Anderson, a contributing editor to The American Lawyer magazine, is, in fact, nearly bankrupt.
The book opens with a short biography of Albert C. Barnes, who established the foundation in 1922 to oversee his art collection. He housed the collection, which features hundreds of works by Cezanne, Matisse, Modigliani, Picasso, Renoir, and others, in a gallery in Merion, Pa., where educational classes were offered by invitation only. According to the author, Mr. Barnes created strict bylaws concerning the collection, and before his death in 1951, he gave Lincoln University, a historically black institution near Philadelphia, authority to appoint four of the five seats on the foundation’s board.
Mr. Anderson discusses an attempt by Richard Glanton, a lawyer who served as president of the foundation board in the 1990s, to wield control over the collection and to free it from some of the restrictions put in place by Mr. Barnes. The author says Mr. Glanton even sought, unsuccessfully, to sell some of the paintings, which is against the bylaws. With the foundation operating at a deficit—and concerned that the endowment was not generating enough income, partly because of a stipulation by Mr. Barnes that it be almost wholly invested in bonds—Mr. Glanton decided to open the gallery to the public, according to the author. When neighbors attempted to block the construction of a parking lot to accommodate visitors, Mr. Glanton sued the town and several residents, claiming racial discrimination because of the foundation’s ties to the university.
Today, Mr. Anderson notes in his epilogue, the foundation is once again petitioning the court. This time, he says, the new board members are seeking to move the collection to Philadelphia in order to attract large numbers of visitors and generate substantially more income for the organization, whose endowment, partly because of legal fees, has been almost entirely wiped out.
Publisher: W.W. Norton and Company, 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10110; (212) 354-5500; fax (212) 869-0856; http://www.wwnorton.com; 288 pages; $25.95; I.S.B.N. 0-393-04889-6.
