Barnes ex-boss: 'We never said we were "bankrupt."' Really?
"Bankruptcy was not the reason," despite claims at the time, writes ex-Barnes boss Kimberly Camp
Barnes ex-boss: 'We never said we were "bankrupt."' Really?
Joseph N. DiStefano
UPDATE: Despite then-Barnes Foundation boss Kimberly Camp's claim, her board's chairman Bernard Watson certainly did threaten bankruptcy -- in 2003, after Camp says she had restored financial stability. Read the story here. Excerpt:
"'Given our financial situation, given the unlikely situation where we're going to get the kind of support that we need, we're going into bankruptcy, and it's that simple,' Barnes board chairman Bernard Watson said yesterday. 'We go into bankruptcy, at which point the attorney general of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania takes over, and it's up to him what happens to the Barnes after that.'"
EARLIER: Ex-Barnes Foundation head Kimberly Camp tells me it was the media, not the Barnes, who claimed the museum would go out of business if it didn't leave its original home in Merion for the new, taxpayer-and-foundation-funded Parkway site. According to Camp:
"We never said we were 'bankrupt.'
"Newspapers did.
"I don’t lie. Not wired for it."
She's talking about articles, starting with this 2000 news story in which the Inquirer repeated claims the Barnes was running out of money.
"It was true in 2000, but it wasn't true in 2002," Camp tells me.
EARLIER: Kimberly Camp, who headed the Barnes Foundation from 1999-2005 during its successful struggle to move the late Dr. Albert Barnes' art collection from its Merion home to the new taxpayer-subsidized Philadelphia museum after letting the world believe it had to move because bankruptcy was imminent (see timeline here), now says things weren't all that bad, and explains why the Barnes really moved, in a blog post here. Camp's new account raises questions that have incensed the move's diehard opponents, who have gone on fighting, even after the new museum is open. Highlights from her post:
The Barnes' "circumstance required its relocation," Camp writes. "That circumstance was not bankruptcy. ...
"Bankruptcy was not the reason we filed the petition to move the Foundation to the city. At the time the petition was filed, the Barnes Foundation had a cash surplus and we had no debt -- none. But, saying so made the rescue so much more gallant.
"The reason for the Barnes Foundation move on to the Parkway in Philadelphia was simple. The same Indenture – the very same document that freezes the Barnes Foundation collection in time - also said very plainly, very specifically that if the Barnes Foundation was not viable in Merion, the collection should go to a Philadelphia institution.
"Barnes’ letters to and from colleagues and friends spoke of his interest in having the Foundation more accessible to common everyday working class people after his death. ... Barnes wrote to his friend and colleague John Dewey, he worried that in an attempt to re-create the program once they were gone, people would set it in stone, make it rigid, and thereby destroy it. He was right.
"The negativity [about moving the museum to Philadelphia] from neighbors and former students was never about where the Barnes belonged. It was merely that [the move would show] it didn’t belong only to them." Camp has a couple of complaints about the new drive-up museum -- it seems to her to credit the financial contributions of private-sector donors like Aramark chief Joseph Neubauer before Barnes himself; and the African art Barnes considered fundamental to modern art seems to her to be relegated to the background, compared to its prominent place in the original museum. But it's her declaration that "saying so" -- letting people think the Barnes was broke -- wasn't really so, but instead sounded "so much more gallant" than the prosaic rationale of wanting more space and a downtown location, that brought opponents back to court. "This new information is shocking, where the [former] president and CEO of the Barnes Foundation admits that everything that was said during the trial about not having enough money was false," thundered anti-move Friends of the Barnes lawyer Samuel Stretton, in a letter to Superior Court that was released by Friends leader Evelyn Yaari. Stretton (who faces a contempt finding in relation to the case) asked Judge Stanley Ott, who heard the legal challenge to the move and ruled to allow the move, to hold a hearing on Camp's disclosure "since apparently false information was presented."
My favorite NY Time comment: The rest of the world is over the Barne's move only Philadelphia is not. Please move on. It's a beautiful presentation in a beautiful building and is receiving the praise he should have gotten however many years ago.— jonline- It's over. Bankruptcy was an option simply to get out of the onerous provisions of the Trust, just as the Philly Orchestra used bankruptcy to get out of bad contracts and pension obligations. Regardless of what Camp says, all of these institutions are effectively controlled by their big donors. Just as Pew and Annenberg force the Orchestra to file by threatening to withhold contributions, the same thing happened with the Barnes. All of these institutions are effectively insolvent, because nothing forces the donors to continue funding. The minute they are cut off, they are bankrupt as none of them come close to paying their obligations through operating expenses. So what she is saying is not entirely accurate, because they only were solvent as long as the donors continued funding. The bankruptcy threat (as we saw with the Orchestra) was real.— Palestra Jon
- Tell that to the nuns and the good-hearted who fed homeless on the parkway until the mayor banned the practice - because rich people shouldn't see poor people on their way to see art.— DJR
- Hey, go enjoy the homeless all you want. — mmds
- So just as I suspected, it was all a big lie. This BS about interpreting Dr. Barnes intentions is all embellishment. I'm sure that a case could be made to support any position using snippets of old letters. This was about a money grab. The same motivation that fuels The School District fraud. It's about people having power, high paying jobs, and lucrative vendor contracts. Follow the money and you find the motive...greed.— Mr_Hankey
- Who didn't know this. Judge Ott was appointed to honor Dr. Barnes last Will and Testament he is the culprit for going down the easy road of what the establishment and politicians wanted.— Earl J
- Gosh, I'm floored.
First Obama lies about the health-care law being a tax and now the Barnes people have lied about the foundation's finances.
Who can you trust? Bill "depends on the meaning of is" Clinton? John Edwards, the family man? Reuben Amaro this "is not a fire sale" who is shopping Cole Hamels?
Bernie Madoff is looking more and more mainstream every day. (Call me a cynic.)— yahzooman - I just read her blog. She's full of hot air. She accuses everyone else of grandstanding while her blog discussion is really all about how she was not adequately revered at the grand opening events AND references her soon-to-be completed book. She hides behind references to Dr. Barnes' vision as if she alone understands someone she’s never met. She's just trying to sell a book, so she made controversial accusations to draw attention to herself. Also, if that blog is any indication of the writing in her book, she doesn't know when to stop trying to make a point and can't tell a story.— msmame
- If Joe Neubauer and Ed Rendell had anything to do with the move (and they both did), then you know it smells.— farhorizons
- 1. For better or worse the Barnes saga is over. Its at 20th and Pkwy and is not coming back to Merion.
2. Re: "feeding the poor on the parkway. Feeding the poor is a worthy and noble act that all good-hearted people should support. Nevertheless, it is not FAIR to the majority of City residents for the poor and their worth benefactors to appropriate the best PUBLIC real estate in Center City for there charitable purposes, i.e., why an alternative, inside location makes the most sense. There is enough of a homeless problem on the Parkway without exacerbating it with these public feeding in the HEART OF THE TOURIST and MUSEUM district.— eam30717 
Comment removed.- To be fair, Barnes was lying about their finances long before Obama started lying about Obamacare being a tax increase.— Echo
- Everyone knows that lies are what make this country go around/forward and backwards. This is why we produce the best Lawyers around. I learned this firsthand a long time ago. Remember, if their lips are moving hold onto your wallet.— A. Martinez
- Theres a difference between not having enough money and not having enough income. Just because, at that moment, the Barnes was solvent didnt mean it was going to remain that way. Especially with the limited visiting hours and the continued harrassment by the neighbors on Latchs Lane.— JeetYet
- Dear Albert keeps on giving! It is the best Philadelphia story ever. Tell me more.
I want to hear the quid pro quo story, so far denied all the way to china, of the gov. giving Lincoln University millions of state of PA dollars for them to give up their control of the Barnes Board, which they had made such a fiduciary hash of that someone still needs to go to jail for. I suppose Camp or someone will eventually tell that story publicly, too.
There was no reason legally, logically, academically, financially or otherwise to make the move from Merion, but bingo, there she blows; little of what Camp, Glanton, Watson, the neighbors, Ott, the Lincoln Board, the Governor, the Attorney General, the old board of non elites, the new board of elites or any of them has ever said about the situation that seemed to ring true, but who cared? Everyone disliked Dear Albert so much that all the lies were just grist for the mill.
It was and is the greatest story of lies, fabrication, cover-ups, hurt feelings, race...hush up, accusations and all of it so far from the truth, (until the present administration in the White House has now topped even Albert Barnes for absurdity and the convolution of all their lies), that there will be another movie, at least, without a doubt.
Not surprising to hear this news, (very old news actually) finally come forth publicly from Ms. Camp.
Her time there was not the smartest, nor the smoothest nor the most transparent, either.— GAC
