Robbing Dr. Barnes' grave

TO: Montgomery County Orphans' Court.

Attn.: Hon. Stanley Ott.

Dear Judge Ott:

I rolled over in my grave last Saturday when Lincoln University chose not to fight the attempt to move my art from Lower Merion into the city by those now running the foundation I created.

As the fate of my collection now rests in your hands, and as neither of these parties appears to be speaking for me now, I have no alternative but to try to speak for myself.

I don't think I could have been more clear when I wrote my will:

"All the paintings shall remain in exactly the places they are at the time of the death of Donor and his said wife. "

Apparently, I wasn't clear enough for the likes of Gov. Rendell, Attorney General Fisher, the Annenberg Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Lenfest Foundation. Some things never change. This group is the latest version of the same establishment crowd I fought while alive.

These types of people were never my kind. If they were, I would have opened an art gallery and invited them in. Instead, I created an educational institution and clearly stated in my will those who were to benefit:

"It will be incumbent upon the Board of Trustees to make such rules and regulations as will ensure that the plain people, that is, men and women who gain their livelihood by daily toil in shops, factories, schools, stores and similar places, shall have free access to the gallery. "

Please don't let them get away with it. At least not without making them each answer a few questions that have yet to be raised.

Gov. Rendell: Why are you willing to raise $100 million if the Barnes collection is moved into town, but unwilling to raise one dime should the same paintings stay in a nearby part of the commonwealth you govern?

Attorney General Fisher: Why all the sudden interest in my art collection? Where were you (and where was the oversight of your office) when the Barnes Foundation was being run into the ground?

The Annenberg Foundation: Be careful what you wish for. Perhaps down the road some group will seek to unravel Walter Annenberg's similarly specific gift of 52 paintings to the Metropolitan Museum. Annenberg himself required that his collection be shown as a group and banned all outside loans.

Here's a solution: Why not re-route those paintings from Manhattan to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway right now?

The Lenfest Foundation: Isn't Gerry Lenfest the same fellow who recently gave a "permanent" art exhibit consisting of 59 Pennsylvania Impressionist paintings and a $3 million endowment to the James Michener Art Museum in Doylestown? Maybe it won't be so permanent after all.

AND the Pew Charitable Trusts: Maybe someone should take a look at whether your meddling in this squabble squares with the intentions of the Pew family members?

I'm tempted to go ask Joe Pew right now what directives he and his family left behind that you think enables your involvement.

It was my fondest hope that a historically black college like Lincoln would have control of my art, and now all of these lily-white do-gooders have instead turned back the clock.

If the real agenda of any of these folks was to "save" the Barnes Foundation, they would have been heard from long before now, and they would be offering to raise money to bolster the endowment regardless of location.

For a quarter of what Gov. Rendell is promising to raise for the relocation, they could put the Barnes in clover, forever.

If I had died in Red China, I would have expected my property to be state-controlled. But I didn't. And, as far I know, the United States is still a place where you can work hard, accumulate the fruits of your labor, and determine what is to be done with that personal wealth at the time of your death.

Judge Ott, don't let them do this to me. Everyone else wants to ignore the law - the courts are supposed to uphold it.

Sincerely,

Albert C. Barnes

Michael Smerconish can be heard weekdays 5:30-9 a.m. on 1210/AM. Contact him at www.mastalk.com.