Museum World Roundup Story aired: Monday, December 20, 2004
What's been called one of the premier American cultural monuments of the 20th century is being allowed to pick up and move, a prospect that is energizing some in the art world, and enraging others. The art in question is a collection of some 800 paintings housed by the Barnes Foundation, among them some 180 Renoirs, 69 C?nnes, and 60 Matisses. The collection was amassed by pharmaceutical magnate Albert Barnes and displayed in the quirky and restrictive setting of his home in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Last week, a judge overrode Barnes' will and allowed the foundation to move the collection to a more accessible site in Philadelphia. Some art critics say that will send a chill through the donation-dependent museum world. Also chilling, some say, is the $20 it will now cost to get into the newly reopened Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the return of the blockbuster King Tut exhibit -- this time, privatized.
We also talk to two museum directors who have been in the news of late to talk about the challenges facing museums, such as whether a collector's wishes should be preserved as stipulated forever.
Guests:
Jason Kaufman, chief U.S. correspondent for The Art Newspaper
Kimberly Camp, executive director and CEO of the Barnes Foundation in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania
Anne Hawley, director of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, named after the famously eccentric collector who opened her faux Venetian palace to the public as a museum in 1903
