The Art of the Steal Page #12

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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)

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