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Binding: HardcoverDewey Decimal Number: 708.14812 EAN: 9780393048896 Edition: 1 ISBN: 0393048896 Label: W. W. Norton & Company Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 288 Publication Date: 2003-05 Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Studio: W. W. Norton & Company Editorial Review: Amazon.com Review: Art Held Hostage reveals the messy inside story about the most infamous world-class art museum that youve probably never heard of. The saga begins with the life and times of Albert C. Barnes, a Philadelphia business magnet who, after making his fortune during the Depression, becomes one of Americas most important collectors of impressionist and post-impressionist art. The collection includes famed paintings by such luminaries as Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso, and Renoir. Barnes became well known for his harsh personality and instigated a problematic invitation-only policy to his museum, located in a Philadelphia suburb. Strangely, even after Barnes death the museum continued to become embroiled in financial, legal, and community disputes. The story gets uglier during the 1990s with a series of lawsuits for the foundations high-profile president, including a racial discrimination suit and eventually near-bankruptcy for the collection. Author John C. Anderson, a contributing editor of The American Lawyer magazine, spares no cynical detail in his investigation into this truly American tale of power, litigiousness, and boardroom antics. This is a book for those interested in the dark underbelly of the business side of the art world. -- J.P. Cohen Product Description: The battle for control of America's greatest private art collection. This is the story of how a fabled art foundation in a wealthy Main Line suburb of Philadelphia became captive to the roiling ethnic, racial, cultural, and political crosscurrents of a great American city. The Barnes Foundation is home to the world's most important postimpressionist art collection (including more Cézannes than all of the museums of Paris combined). So rich is the collection that it is valued at more than $6 billion, yet today the Barnes is virtually broke. Its fate has been shaped by two men: Albert C. Barnes, who emerged from the Philadelphia slums to become a turn-of-the-century patent medicine king, and Richard Glanton, who escaped poverty in Georgia to become a wealthy and influential lawyer. Born almost a century apart, the two men stamped their distinct personalities on the foundation: Barnes as its iconoclastic founder, Glanton as its president during the turbulent decade of the nineties. 16 pages of illustrations, including color. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Art as Pawn...One of the most telling, not to mention amusing, lines in Art Held Hostage is uttered by Richard Glanton, the Barnes Foundation's former president and the litigious centerpiece of John Anderson's story. In an indignant letter to a Philadelphia Inquirer reporter, Glanton wrote: "If you intend to do what you have done in the past, endeavoring to besmirch my reputation and cast doubts and innuendoes about my leadership, you shall be held to the same standard you are held to when you write about ... Read More Rating:  - A Fascinating Read about An Amazing CollectionAnyone familiar with the Barnes Museum knows the inherent irony of the collection - some of the greatest works of art housed in what amounts to a converted residence, with no logic to the pattern of display other than a sheer "wow" factor over seeing Cezannes, Matisses and other masters shown matter-of-factly. This priceless assemblege, and the battles that have been waged over its ownership and rights of management make for one terrificly enjoyable read. Outside of the art world, few people ... Read More |
