The Art of the Steal Page #7

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on at least two occasions,

and I was approached

about turning it over

to some other institutions

on other occasions.

But I had no intention

of reigning

while somebody else ruled,

and that was, in their view,

the end of me.

They laid the groundwork,

saying the money

that was spent on the lawsuits

ruined the Barnes,

which is not true.

It had more money than it had

when I came in

and a new building.

- Curiously, Glanton said to me

at the time

that-- and this is

not quite how he put it--

but that he was the bulwark

against the establishment

stealing the Barnes.

And in a perverse way,

I think Richard Glanton was

absolutely correct about that.

- I was just like,

"Okay, here are the keys.

"Go do your master's bidding.

Run it into the ground,

into a wall."

And literally, that's what

I wrote the attorney general.

I said, "They're gonna run it

into a brick wall."

- I'm sure I saw the letter.

I'm not gonna say

that his predictions

were accurate, per se.

But once he left,

there was not

the same level of drive

with those who remained.

And in the long run, I thought

that was gonna continue

to drag the Barnes down.

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(Music continues)

(soft piano music)

- And so there we were,

with the Barnes board,

minus Richard Glanton,

with the Barnes's

already parlous endowment

reduced to virtually nothing.

- Barnes Foundation,

without any funds,

without an effective

leadership, is, you know,

sitting in this building

as a sitting duck.

So these forces began

to line up

and work towards something

that had absolutely nothing

to do with what Barnes wanted,

with the agreement

between Barnes

and the state of Pennsylvania

embodied in a legal document.

All of that was sort of

left in a drawer

while politicians

and billionaires

and cultural mavens

and foundations got busy.

- The Barnes was given

just enough money

by the foundations

so that they could claim

that they were trying

to help

the poor ol' Barnes out.

But that was never,

in my opinion, the goal.

- Foundations are

non-profit corporations.

We're used to hearing about

corporate takeovers

with for-profit corporations.

But this was a non-profit

corporate takeover.

And the first thing

you have to do

is remake the board of trustees

so you have a compliant board

who is on your side.

- In the period after

Richard Glanton was out,

the foundation was

just sort of puttering along.

It was still controlled

by Lincoln.

Four of the five board members

were Lincoln board members.

The president

of the board of trustees

put on the board by Lincoln

was Bernie Watson.

- Watson was very

politically connected,

a professional

foundation executive,

and he was the chairman

of the City Convention Center,

the Tourist Bureau.

- In the midst of that

steps up

these Philadelphia foundations.

They were going

to help them raise--

I think it was $150 million.

From the very beginning,

Pew's thought was,

"Well, we're gonna give

you money.

We're gonna get something

out of it.

We want some control."

- It was pretty clear to me

they weren't just gonna give

without getting control

of the Barnes board.

- Well, if you're

Bernie Watson,

your duty was to maintain

a connection

between Barnes and Lincoln,

because that was part

of the trust indenture.

I mean, what's Lincoln have

to offer for Bernie Watson?

He makes his living

from the sort of institutions

and people who want this thing

to happen.

Watson went ahead

and negotiated a deal

that cut Lincoln out.

The only way for a Pew

or any other foundation

to get control,

to be able

to place board members,

was for the indenture

to be changed,

for them to go to court

and change the rules

that Barnes laid down.

Lincoln didn't have a clue.

Watson and these

Philadelphia foundations

had a plan to basically

push them aside.

Right?

They flipped out.

They got an attorney and tried

to intervene and stop it.

- There were enough people

who were making noises

that the plan was starting

to fall apart to the point

where more aggressive tactics

needed to be employed.

- Ed Rendell, the governor

at the time,

starts to put pressure

on Lincoln, okay?

He's the governor.

He controls the purse strings

of this state-affiliated

institution.

He said,

"Well, look, you know,

"Lincoln, you could be in,

you know, a rosy position

"if you go along

with this thing.

What have you gotten

out of Barnes so far? "

Along with Rendell,

the attorney general decides

that he's gonna help pressure

Lincoln a little bit.

And the thing that he has

is the ability to say,

"You get nothing, Lincoln,

if you guys don't play along."

- I don't know that we were

ever as direct as saying,

"We can take this away

from you,"

because that would take

a court to do that,

but I had to explain

to them that,

you know, maybe

the attorney general's office

would have to take some action

involving them

that might have to change

the complexion of the board.

And whether I said that directly

or I implied it,

I think they finally got

the message.

And when they say--

you mentioned it.

It was portrayed

that I was the bad cop

and the governor

was the good cop.

The governor had the money.

And the governor had some money

he was willing to add onto it,

so that automatically made

him good cop.

There was some money proposed

to-- for Lincoln to offset

some of the perhaps

perceived losses

that they might have.

- As I recall,

it was about $40 million.

And I said, "You tell me

what you want to spend

the $40 million on."

- That's not a whole lot

of money to some schools,

but it's a whole lot of money

to Lincoln University.

I think that was part

of the price

of Lincoln letting go.

- They weren't blackmailed

into agreeing with us at all.

If you ask the board,

I made it abundantly clear

to Mr. Scott and others

that they were getting

this money regardless.

- They pressured the sh*t

out of 'em.

And in the end, they caved.

What the Philadelphia

foundations did

is what takes place all the time

in the corporate world,

which is to take over the board

by adding new positions

on the board.

You don't go in

and kill all the board members

that are there.

You just put ten more on

so that those five

no longer have a majority.

Watson negotiated a deal

that watered down

Lincoln's participation

in the management

of the foundation.

Yeah, he betrayed Barnes,

I think, first.

But, you know, to the extent

Lincoln put people

on the board thinking,

well, you know,

you're going to keep Lincoln

in the picture,

he betrayed them too.

- They sold Lincoln University

for a shekel.

They sold it down the creek.

And they had no right

to do that.

- And the Philadelphia

establishment--

who he determined

that never would they get

their hands on this art--

now have it in their hands.

- From the public side,

from what, you know, me

and every other

newspaper reader,

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