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The Pew Charitable Trusts Role in the Affairs of the Barnes Foundation

Enter now the philanthropies. Like the project to build a new home for the collection on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia, the trustees’ suit was underwritten by a consortium of philanthropic institutions led by the Pew Charitable Trust. Given that Barnes’s collection has been estimated to be worth about $25 billion, the $150 million amassed for the move can be regarded as one of the great garage sales of all time.

Barnes’s little reliquary of a museum—designed by Paul Cret, sculpted by Jacques Lipschitz, and painted by Henri Matisse—was designed for the objects it contains. It was, one might say, an installation piece, on a grand scale. Dismantled into its constituent parts and removed from its context, it will offer something far diminished—an instance of more people getting to see less.
From Michael Lewis’ article, "Art for Sale," published in Commentary

 

The Pew Charitable Trusts, under Rebecca Rimel, leads the effort to move the art collection of the Barnes Foundation from its Merion home to a site on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia. Ms. Rimel was recently quoted in The Wall Street Journal as saying, "Philadelphia will keep its nose up if it has more product to offer." Apparently, the art collection of the Barnes Foundation is envisioned by Ms. Rimel as so much new  "product". 

The distance to the planned site is approximately 5.3 miles. The cost of this undertaking in public and private funds is estimated to be at least $300 million and rising. In cultural terms, the cost resulting from the planned evisceration of The Barnes Foundation  would be immeasurable. 

The articles and documents listed below discuss the activities of the Pew Charitable Trusts concerning the Barnes Foundation.

 

Correspondence Re: Application of Pew Charitable Trust for Public Charity Status and a request for an "Investigation as to Abusive Transactions" from Mark D. Schwartz, Esq.:

Letter to IRS Investigative Unit   

Letter to Pennsylvania Attorney General Corbett

Articles:

"The New Goals at the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Rate of the Nonprofit Sector," by Marie C. Malaro, The Nonprofit Quarterly

"A Foundation Head Central to the Philadelphia Story, Cultural Conversation with Rebecca Rimel,"  by Judith H. Dobrzynski, The Wall Street Journal      

"Behind the Barnes Bonanza," by David D’Arcy, Artnet

"Peeeeewww," by Noel Weyrich, Philadelphia Magazine

Email:  barnesfriends@comcast.net
Write: 7615 St. Martin’s Lane
            Philadelphia, PA  19118

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