The Art of the Steal - The Masterpieces of the Barnes Foundation

My incredible day at the Barnes Foundation

Because of traffic and construction, it took me over two hours to arrive in Merion, PA. It absolutely was worth it. The Barnes Foundation is a truly spiritual experience. The grounds are majestic and beautiful ... and although I have visited the Barnes Foundation several years ago, I knew it was time to return. Especially since we will not have the possibly to experience this for much longer ... for as you may know, the world famous Barnes Collection is scheduled to be moved in less than one year.

Please watch the incredible documentary - 'The Art of the Steal'. My eyes teared up at the tragedy of this. An art lover. A collector. A visionary. And the complete disregard of the final will and testament.

With this in mind, I wanted to experience the vision of Dr. Barnes. Dr. Barnes used his wealth to build what is widely considered to be the greatest collection of post-impressionist art ever assembled. It includes hundreds of works by masters like Renoir, Cezanne, Matisse, Monet, Picasso, Van Gogh . . . and on and on. The collection has been valued at 25 to 30 billion dollars, at least.

The beautiful entrance way

Entering the main doorway

The Tea House and fish pond

The gardens

The Greenhouse

The opposition for the Collection to move

Acknowledgment

When I visited the Matisse Museum in Nice in 2008, it made me proud to see the drawings for 'The Dance' in preparation for the Barnes Foundation, Merion, PA (my home state). Henri Matisse said "The Barnes Foundation is the only sane place to see art in America".

With this said, you may consider reserving your tickets as soon as possible ... because chances are that you will never be able to enjoy this wonderful experience again after June, 2011. Yes, I'm sure that Philadelphia will do an incredible job building a first class museum ...

but the paintings won't be ... 'home' ...

The Barnes Art Collection Controversy, Part I

On an observatory note ... after touring and seeing and listening to the audio for the collection, and then revisiting the paintings several times thereafter ... my final visit before walking the beautiful grounds was to the gift shop - six hours after my arrival. I was paging through books and overheard the two loud women next to me ... one laughing to the other saying "we toured the museum for five minutes and now we've spent over an hour in the gift shop" ... doesn't that say a lot ...


Response from the "Barnes Foundation" ...