Thursday, July 01, 2010

For some reason they left out the part about the "theft"

I recently stumbled across this New York Times editorial from 2003, in support of the plan to move the Barnes. "Help is at hand," it begins, for the "secluded," "inaccessible" collection. It notes that its $10 million legacy has been spent, the trustees "reduced to fighting bankruptcy and litigation." But the editorial board welcomes the new plan, which includes (a) $150 million in pledges from leading foundations to open the collection "to far more visitors" and (b) $50 million in new campus construction for Lincoln University. They point out that the new museum will "be challenged to duplicate Dr. Barnes's delightfully eclectic 'ensembles' -- wedging an El Greco by a Milton Avery by a Rubens." "But," they conclude, the move "promises to bolster [Barnes's] core conviction that art appreciation must be extended to ordinary working-class people."