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To save our precious cultural heritage
Dan Rottenberg
To save our priceless cultural heritage, or:
Déja vu all over again
DAN ROTTENBERG
The past:
November 10, 2006: Thomas Jefferson University outrages Philadelphians by announcing the impending sale of a local cultural treasure, The Gross Clinic by Thomas Eakins, to the Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton for $68 million.
November 15, 2006: Mayor Street, in an effort to keep The Gross Clinic in Philadelphia, nominates the painting for protective designation as an historic object.
November 20, 2006: Philadelphia civic boosters, led by the Art Museum and the Pennsylvania Academy, launch The Fund For Eakins’ Masterpiece in an attempt to match the $68 million asking price and keep The Gross Clinic in Philadelphia. The campaign generates thousands of donations from around the world.
December 21, 2006: Mayor Street announces that the deal is done, and The Gross Clinic will stay in Philadelphia "forever."
January 20, 2007: Some 1,400 jubilant Philadelphians pack the Art Museum’s Great Stair Hall to celebrate the successful campaign to keep The Gross Clinic in Philadelphia, even though barely half of the necessary $68 million has been raised.
January 25, 2007: To help raise funds to pay for The Gross Clinic, the Pennsylvania Academy’s trustees vote to sell another Eakins painting— The Cello Player, owned by the Academy since 1897— for $7 million.
Early February 2007: News of the sale of The Cello Player leaks out, provoking a new wave of outrage within the Philadelphia culture community. “People feel betrayed,” one booster tells the Inquirer’s Stephan Salisbury, who comments that the Pennsylvania Academy, in its capacity as a leader in the fund-raising effort, “has done precisely what many donors were upset about in the first place.”
The future:
March 25, 2007: Philadelphia civic boosters, led by the Art Museum and the Pennsylvania Academy, launch The Fund For Eakins’ Reasonably Decent Painting in an attempt to raise $7 million to buy back The Cello Player for Philadelphia. The campaign generates hundreds of donations from around the country.
April 10, 2007: Some 1,398 moderately pleased Philadelphians pack the Art Museum’s auditorium to celebrate the successful campaign to keep The Cello Player in Philadelphia, even though barely half of the necessary $7 million has been raised. Conspicuously absent from the ceremony are the Art Museum’s director and CEO, Anne d’Harnoncourt, and her husband Joseph Rishel, the museum’s senior curator for pre-1900 European art.
April 12, 2007: News leaks out that, to help raise funds to pay for The Cello Player, the Art Museum’s trustees have sold Anne d’Harnoncourt and Joseph Rishel into slavery for $4 million. “This was a very difficult decision,” board chairman H. Fitzgerald Lenfest explains to reporters. “Anne and Joe mean a great deal to us, and I’m sure we’ll will miss them tremendously. But we just couldn’t find any other way to raise a sum of that magnitude.”
April 13, 2007: Outraged Philadelphia culture lovers launch The Fund For the Rishels in an attempt to raise $4 million to buy the couple back. The campaign generates dozens of contributions from around the region.
April 14, 2007: Mayor Street, in an effort to return the Rishels to Philadelphia, nominates them for protective designation as priceless cultural resources.
April 15, 2007: Art Mueum chairman Lenfest assures reporters that he has contacted the Rishels at a rubber plantation near Manaus, Brazil, and that they are in good health. “They’re getting plenty of fresh air, sunshine and wholesome physical exercise,” he insists, “not to mention three square meals a day. They’ve thrown away their overcoats and galoshes. And now that they’ve experienced life without staff meetings all day long, I don’t think we could get them back here even if we could afford it.”
May 1, 2007: Some 500 annoyed Philadelphians squeeze into the Art Museum’s cafeteria to celebrate the successful campaign to buy the Rishels back from slavery, even though only a fraction of the necessary $4 million has been raised.
May 15, 2007: News leaks out that, to help raise funds to pay for the Rishels’ return, Mayor Street and City Council have sold City Hall to the CVS drug store chain for $3 million— a bare fraction of the $24 million the Second Empire building cost to erect in 1901. “We had no choice but to sell an asset,” Mayor Street explained. “This is a century-old building that would have cost hundreds of millions to renovate. Instead we get the Rishels back. I think it’s the best possible deal under the circumstances.”
To be continued.
To read a response, click here.
Déja vu all over again
DAN ROTTENBERG
The past:
November 10, 2006: Thomas Jefferson University outrages Philadelphians by announcing the impending sale of a local cultural treasure, The Gross Clinic by Thomas Eakins, to the Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton for $68 million.
November 15, 2006: Mayor Street, in an effort to keep The Gross Clinic in Philadelphia, nominates the painting for protective designation as an historic object.
November 20, 2006: Philadelphia civic boosters, led by the Art Museum and the Pennsylvania Academy, launch The Fund For Eakins’ Masterpiece in an attempt to match the $68 million asking price and keep The Gross Clinic in Philadelphia. The campaign generates thousands of donations from around the world.
December 21, 2006: Mayor Street announces that the deal is done, and The Gross Clinic will stay in Philadelphia "forever."
January 20, 2007: Some 1,400 jubilant Philadelphians pack the Art Museum’s Great Stair Hall to celebrate the successful campaign to keep The Gross Clinic in Philadelphia, even though barely half of the necessary $68 million has been raised.
January 25, 2007: To help raise funds to pay for The Gross Clinic, the Pennsylvania Academy’s trustees vote to sell another Eakins painting— The Cello Player, owned by the Academy since 1897— for $7 million.
Early February 2007: News of the sale of The Cello Player leaks out, provoking a new wave of outrage within the Philadelphia culture community. “People feel betrayed,” one booster tells the Inquirer’s Stephan Salisbury, who comments that the Pennsylvania Academy, in its capacity as a leader in the fund-raising effort, “has done precisely what many donors were upset about in the first place.”
The future:
March 25, 2007: Philadelphia civic boosters, led by the Art Museum and the Pennsylvania Academy, launch The Fund For Eakins’ Reasonably Decent Painting in an attempt to raise $7 million to buy back The Cello Player for Philadelphia. The campaign generates hundreds of donations from around the country.
April 10, 2007: Some 1,398 moderately pleased Philadelphians pack the Art Museum’s auditorium to celebrate the successful campaign to keep The Cello Player in Philadelphia, even though barely half of the necessary $7 million has been raised. Conspicuously absent from the ceremony are the Art Museum’s director and CEO, Anne d’Harnoncourt, and her husband Joseph Rishel, the museum’s senior curator for pre-1900 European art.
April 12, 2007: News leaks out that, to help raise funds to pay for The Cello Player, the Art Museum’s trustees have sold Anne d’Harnoncourt and Joseph Rishel into slavery for $4 million. “This was a very difficult decision,” board chairman H. Fitzgerald Lenfest explains to reporters. “Anne and Joe mean a great deal to us, and I’m sure we’ll will miss them tremendously. But we just couldn’t find any other way to raise a sum of that magnitude.”
April 13, 2007: Outraged Philadelphia culture lovers launch The Fund For the Rishels in an attempt to raise $4 million to buy the couple back. The campaign generates dozens of contributions from around the region.
April 14, 2007: Mayor Street, in an effort to return the Rishels to Philadelphia, nominates them for protective designation as priceless cultural resources.
April 15, 2007: Art Mueum chairman Lenfest assures reporters that he has contacted the Rishels at a rubber plantation near Manaus, Brazil, and that they are in good health. “They’re getting plenty of fresh air, sunshine and wholesome physical exercise,” he insists, “not to mention three square meals a day. They’ve thrown away their overcoats and galoshes. And now that they’ve experienced life without staff meetings all day long, I don’t think we could get them back here even if we could afford it.”
May 1, 2007: Some 500 annoyed Philadelphians squeeze into the Art Museum’s cafeteria to celebrate the successful campaign to buy the Rishels back from slavery, even though only a fraction of the necessary $4 million has been raised.
May 15, 2007: News leaks out that, to help raise funds to pay for the Rishels’ return, Mayor Street and City Council have sold City Hall to the CVS drug store chain for $3 million— a bare fraction of the $24 million the Second Empire building cost to erect in 1901. “We had no choice but to sell an asset,” Mayor Street explained. “This is a century-old building that would have cost hundreds of millions to renovate. Instead we get the Rishels back. I think it’s the best possible deal under the circumstances.”
To be continued.
To read a response, click here.
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