Word: glanton
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...When Glanton and the board petitioned the court for permission to sell, there was an explosion of protest from museum professionals and critics -- among them, Thomas Freudenheim, the Smithsonian Institution's under secretary for museums, who condemned the plan as "in direct conflict with the museum's archival and research function." The consensus outside the foundation was that the Barnes collection was a national treasure, which ought to be preserved in every detail. Besides, the sale would have flagrantly contradicted Barnes' stated wishes -- "No picture belonging to the collection," runs the foundation's charter, "shall ever be loaned, sold...
...authorities, critics and the Barnes' own students, the sales idea was dropped, only to be replaced with another that Barnes would also have loathed but that at least wasn't as radical. Encouraged by J. Carter Brown, the soon-to-retire director of the National Gallery in Washington, Glanton proposed a worldwide tour of paintings from the collection, accompanied by all the usual backup -- reproductions, books, posters, souvenirs. In July 1992 the Barnes board won court permission to mount such a tour, just once, after which the paintings were never to leave Merion again. This, says Brown, was "a very...
...Knopf's owner, Samuel Newhouse Jr., gave a $2 million donation to Lincoln University -- sheer coincidence, no doubt, but nevertheless the timing prompted a lawsuit brought by the DeMazia Trust. Meanwhile, several objectors within the Barnes Foundation -- both teachers and students -- have been expelled or dismissed, allegedly on Glanton's orders...
...Glanton's critics object to the fact that the Barnes board never tried other ways of raising money -- through charitable foundations or private donors. Selling out (as they see it) to the big museums is an admission of impotence, of the Barnes Foundation's lack of a constituency, which should be fixed first. The other side's answer is that the Barnes will never get a constituency until the public can get into it; this can't happen until the place is fixed...
...categorically denies that the show was rushed: "The pictures that have been chosen were very carefully reviewed by a conservation committee. Some were rejected because their condition was fragile. There has been no major conservation." In an interview published in last month's issue of Art & Auction, Glanton (who is black) tried to nuke his critics with the claim that they were impelled by racism. Walter Annenberg entered the fray with the ponderous declamation that the hundred or so students who, headed by an engineer named Nick Tinari, are now seeking a court injunction to prevent the paintings leaving...