The Art of the Steal Page #5

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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 f***ing 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

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