The Art of the Steal Page #9

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- No integrity.

- Shame on you!

(clamoring)

Shame on you!

Shame on you!

- We're outside the location

where they're planning to put

the new Barnes museum.

And they're having some sort

of a celebration of that,

which is very annoying.

Philistines!

And we're just sort of

protesting their party

because a lot of these people

don't even realize

what they're doing:

destroying a man's will,

destroying this collection,

which half of 'em

don't even have a clue about.

Have fun now!

Wait till it's your will!

Barnes was married,

never had children,

never had anyone

that could have come in

after the fact and said,

"Hey, you know, you screwed

my grandfather over.

I want the paintings."

The grandchildren

were the students

who showed up 50 years later.

- To anyone who's familiar

with Dr. Barnes's will,

everything that he said

during his lifetime,

this will be destructive

to his creation.

I implore you to vote no.

- The motion passes.

Thank you very much.

- Right now

the Friends of the Barnes

is an organization

with one reason to exist:

to prevent the relocation

of the gallery art collection.

- It's such a great

all-American story.

It's almost a Barnesian story,

you know.

The heroic little guy fighting

the forces of City Hall

and the downtown oligarchy.

That's what Barnes was doing.

- You get a choice here.

You get a choice

to decide to listen

to the folks who live

near the Barnes Foundation,

the people who have been

to school

at the Barnes Foundation.

- We're gonna be happy

to have it,

but thanks for trying.

- Friends of the Barnes

approached the county and said,

"We're struggling here.

"We'd really like you to come

out and be part of this fight

to save the Barnes

in Montgomery County,"

And I think it was that point

that the momentum

began to build,

and that the residents

of Montgomery County

had a feeling that,

"Wait a second,

Philadelphia can't just take

our art."

- So would

the Barnes Foundation,

one of the world's greatest

art collections,

move from the suburbs

to the city of Philadelphia?

- As Fox 29's Gerald Kolpan

explains,

while it appears the Iegal

hurdles have been cleared,

some say, "Not so fast. "

- Montgomery County

and the Iocal group

friends of the Barnes

have retained counsel,

saying that if

the Barnes board

could raise the money

for the move,

they should have been able

to raise the same money

to improve the Barnes

where it is.

There are still unknowns

in this case.

No one knows just how much

it'II cost taxpayers,

and no one knows how hard

Montgomery County

is willing to fight.

- I don't have any respect

for the cultural

and political elite

of Pennsylvania.

You know, these are

grade-B players

who basically are doing

tourism promotion.

This is the Disneyland

of paintings.

That's not what

Dr. Barnes wanted.

My primary goal is

to reopen these proceedings

by filing a petition

and persuading this judge

that there were things

that he didn't know about,

that if he had known

about them,

that the outcome

would have been different.

What happened is,

this became

a feeding trough

for politicians.

- The story is that the Barnes

has to move

in order to be saved.

It's not true.

- People wanted it to happen,

and they assessed

the situation.

They saw what needed to be done

to make it happen,

and they're powerful enough

to do it.

- I'm convinced Judge Ott

is a wonderful judge

and he's gonna do

the right thing,

and when he takes a look

at this, he's gonna find that,

yes, we can survive

in Montgomery County

and that's where

the gallery belongs.

- The move is not a done deal.

As far as I'm concerned,

this a deal coming undone.

- It was a combination

of the establishment forces.

And I think they focused on it

Iike Ahab focused

on the white whale.

And I think the objective

took over,

and I don't think

that anybody there

thinks about Barnes

or alternatives or consequences.

I think that this is the glory

they wish to capture.

- The reason it was permitted

to move to Philadelphia

was because the presentation

by the foundation showed

that it was financially

not feasible

to stay in Montgomery County

and to survive.

- It was going down the tubes,

and there was no soluble answer

to its problems.

- If anybody can't fund

the Barnes,

which is a tiny little budget,

out of the private sector,

then they ought to find

another job.

(birds chirping)

- You can't get

enough people in

because of the restrictions

and the parking problems.

They couldn't get enough people

into the Barnes to see it

to make it even close

to financially workable.

- The truth is, that's not

the way it is anymore.

Lower Merion Township,

on its own, did go ahead,

and they changed the zoning

restrictions.

The township was able to say

to the gallery,

"You're allowed to admit

more persons per day

and open the gallery

more days per week."

So there is real potential here

to bring in more revenue.

There was no movement whatsoever

from the foundation.

So they didn't allow themselves

to take in more visitors

and to gain more revenue.

And the supposition is that

the trustees liked it that way,

because they didn't want people

to feel the ease

of accessing

the Barnes Foundation,

that they wanted people to say,

"Get it out of there,

bring it to Philadelphia,

where we can get into it."

There are a lot of ways

this gallery can remain

in Montgomery County.

There was a deal offered

to the foundation.

We estimated $50 million.

The county would float a bond

for $50 million,

which enables the foundation

to have an endowment,

an ongoing endowment

that would allow it

to remain in Montgomery County.

- You know, in six weeks,

the Barnes Foundation

could have $50 million

in the bank and,

you know, they could--

they could be fine.

- This was all opened up

to the foundation

for purposes of negotiation.

There's a way

we can make this work.

We had a response back from

the foundation outright saying,

"We're not interested in this."

There's got to be a reason

that they're not interested

in responding to that.

- They never wanted

to raise money.

They wanted this place

to go bust.

They wanted it to go bust

so that they would have a reason

to bring people in,

to dissolve the indenture,

because they could then argue

that they couldn't operate

on the basis of the indenture,

and then that would give--

they could do it with impunity

and then get autonomy

to operate the way they wanted.

- So anybody that tells me

there wasn't the money

to keep it where it is...

is nonsensical.

The forces wanted it moved

no matter what.

(dramatic music)

(Music continues)

- It's fair to say

that there was a vast conspiracy

to move the Barnes.

This obviously involved

the three lead foundations,

the politicians, mayors,

governors, state senators.

Everybody on that side

of the equation was powerful,

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