The Art of the Steal Page #10

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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.

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