Barnes Foundation tour raised millions, defied founder’s wishes

Richard H. Glanton backed the Barnes Foundation’s 1993-to-1995 tour of art that defied Albert C. Barnes’s strict anti-loan rules and brought in far more money than the institution first sought. Approved by Orphans’ Court, the traveling exhibition was meant to finance repairs to the nearly 70-year-old Merion gallery and administration building, and it ultimately raised $17 million, not just the at least $7 million the foundation needed.

Glanton served as president of the Barnes Foundation’s board of trustees and chief executive from June 1990 to February 1998, a period when the foundation was fighting over who controlled its assets, its finances and its future. The tour was a board-backed decision to use masterworks that the founder had tightly protected.

The exhibition moved selected paintings from the Merion galleries to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo, the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Haus der Kunst in Munich. Contemporary accounts put 83 works on view, while other records cite 80 paintings. The Barnes collection traveled internationally in a way Albert C. Barnes had tried to prevent.

The show broke attendance records at many venues and introduced the collection to thousands of people worldwide, the foundation later said. In Toronto, the exhibit drew record North American attendance during its run.

Albert C. Barnes’s bylaws had imposed strict restrictions on loans. Glanton was also tied to contentious Barnes Foundation litigation with Lower Merion Township, including racial discrimination allegations against township officials and arguments over whether the institution could loosen founder-imposed restrictions.