One thought on “Museums Grapple With the Strings Attached to Gifts”
I am from Philadelphia and closely followed the entire Barnes saga. It is such a shame and a disgrace how the elitists violated Albert Barnes legacy. They claimed they just HAD to move the entire collection to preserve the Foundation. The truth is they wanted to have their names associated with a new museum on Philly’s museum row and be perceived as “do-gooders.”
The sad reality is that the Foundation could have sold just a single painting and had more than enough money to survive. Sure, it would have required a court decision to sell even one painting but it would have been infinitely more desirable and would have allowed the Foundation to honor Barnes wishes as expressly stipulated in his will that the paintings in the collection be kept “in exactly the places they are.”
I am from Philadelphia and closely followed the entire Barnes saga. It is such a shame and a disgrace how the elitists violated Albert Barnes legacy. They claimed they just HAD to move the entire collection to preserve the Foundation. The truth is they wanted to have their names associated with a new museum on Philly’s museum row and be perceived as “do-gooders.”
The sad reality is that the Foundation could have sold just a single painting and had more than enough money to survive. Sure, it would have required a court decision to sell even one painting but it would have been infinitely more desirable and would have allowed the Foundation to honor Barnes wishes as expressly stipulated in his will that the paintings in the collection be kept “in exactly the places they are.”