Albert Barnes: Art Collector, Philanthropist, Visionary
The story of the famous Barnes Foundation (the Foundation), formerly of Merion, Pa., and, as of 2012, relocated to its new home in Philadelphia’s cultural district, is one that will be familiar to trusts and estates lawyers, perhaps most notably as a cautionary tale of a founder’s wishes being overruled by trustees and the courts in numerous legal battles over several decades. A new biography of Albert Barnes, The Maverick’s Museum: Albert Barnes and His American Dream, by art critic Blake Gopnick, seeks to better understand the man behind the Foundation, and, since we all know how the story ends, shed light on Albert’s motivations for the rigid strictures of his Foundation’s indenture, which, in the end, proved too inflexible to bend an…