14. The Art of the Steal 2.0 - Billion Dollar Black Holes From Barn...

Renoir's Portrait of a Young Woman. Source: MCAM

THERE IS NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN

The story of billion-dollar boardroom shenanigans, trustees with hidden agendas amending bylaws to facilitate what can only be described as theft - right under everyone's noses - of priceless assets is not unique to our present struggle.

Thank you to the Mills alum who posted on social media a couple weeks back about this excellent 2009 Don Argott documentary "The Art of the Steal". The parallels between what happened with the Barnes Collection in Pennsylvania and the current situation at Mills College are quite remarkable. Is the same playbook being used?

THE ART OF THE STEAL *** Must-Watch Documentary ***

See also: The Art of Stealing from the Rich and the Dead, Vanity Fair 2010

EXTREME GENEROSITY IN SUPPORT OF EDUCATION

Albert C Barnes amassed a superlative art collection in defiance of the Philadelphia art establishment. Renoir, Matisse, Picasso, Modigliani - all names found in Mills College's collection too. Barnes left very clear instructions in his Will about what was to be done with the collection after his death. He didn't want it to be a museum for the masses; he wanted it to be used for the education of future leaders of the art world from underserved communities. He had designed and placed the collection in his home specifically for that purpose, his wish was for that to continue in partnership with Lincoln, America's first Historically Black University founded in 1854..

Over time, a succession of poor board decisions eroded his estate's control of his bequest to the point that a larger, richer Foundation could just come in and take it over - with the help of a seemingly corrupt Attorney General. It was Barnes' art, his endowment, his wishes...but the Board of Trustees thought otherwise.

The 4000 objects in the Barnes collection are, of course, priceless. This hasn't stopped commercial value being ascribed to them: $25 billion in 2010, according to Bloomberg.

The Mills College Art Museum has at least three times the collection of Barnes, more than 12,000 objects:

With over 12,000 works of art from a diverse range of cultures and time periods, the Mills College Art Museum has one of the largest permanent collections of any liberal arts college on the West Coast. The collection spans centuries of art-making practices, from the first century BC to the present, with significant holdings of prints and drawings, photography, ceramics, textiles, Native American basketry, and early 20th-century California painting. Source: MCAM

For some reason they don't say they actually have objects from thousands of years B.C., not just the first century; and in the main About section of their web site they say they only have 8,000 objects in the collection. More red flags, in a field of red flags around this mysterious transaction.

abraham_entertaining_the_angels_1948.70.png

Abraham Entertaining the Angels, Rembrandt 1656. Source: MCAM

BERT BRINGS BOURGOISIE TO THE BAY

Albert Barnes had a strong connection to Paris, where many of the day's most avant garde artists were gathering in the salon of the Steins (Gertrude, Leo, Michael and Sarah).

So did Mills College trustee Albert M Bender. The two Berts, Bender and Barnes, were contemporaries and moved in the same edgy artistic circles. Bender was “the most active buyer—and donor—of the work of California artists the state had ever known.”

"The Steins in Paris" re Barnes & Bender:

Source: Aline Saarinen, The American Scholar Vol 27 No.4 (1958), Phi Beta Kappa society via JSTOR

BENDER'S BEQUEST

The Irish son of a German Rabbi, Bender "was a founding board member of the Federation of Jewish Charities and a long-time congregant of Emanu-El, whose cavernous sanctuary could not hold all who attended his funeral."

Bender gave an enormous gift of at least 40 paintings and 75 prints to the Mills College Art Museum. His generosity also established the SF MOMA in 1936.

In the time of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, Bender was one of their most enthusiastic supporters. As a result, the Mills College collection includes Rivera's iconic Mother and Child.

diego_river_mother_and_child_1926.101.png

"Mother and Child", Diego Rivera. Source: MCAM

In 2018 a Diego Rivera painting set a new record for the highest sale price of any LatinX artist; his work "The Rivals", commissioned by a Rockefeller, sold for about $10 million.

Source: BBC

According to the Mills College Art Museum web site, by the 1880's the College had already accumulated 1,000 works of art and 3,000 books in its collection.

The 1931 book Four Score Years is a history of Mills College written before the end of its first century. Of Bender's collection, it says:

"the college owes a large part of its collections to the interest and generosity of Albert M Bender and to the fine spirit of the western painters from whom he solicited contributions at the time of the opening of the gallery in 1925. It is Mr Bender who has also made possible the Bender Room in the college library, a treasure room containing two thousand volumes that represent the famous presses of the world, rare books, first editions and manuscripts. Dr William S Porter, Prentiss N Gray and other patrons of art have enriched the collection"

Nearly a hundred years ago, Mills had a "treasure room" of 2000 rare books and first editions. Can you imagine how much more valuable all those must be today?

PRICELESS TREASURES, REAL MONEY

Last year just ONE of Mills College's rare books became the most expensive work of literature in history, sold for nearly $10 million by auction house Christie's:

Source: Smithsonian

What, now, was the point of selling this gift to the College from a Trustee? To buy President Hillman and the Board another year of postponing what they now tell us was inevitable?

What could be more priceless than an original Shakespeare First Folio? How about relics from ancient dynasties:

Egyptian Mummy Mask, pre 2000 BC. Source: MCAM

Bronze Ritual Vessel, Shang Dynasty 1600 BC. Source: MCAM

Vase, Ming Dynasty, 15th Century A.D. Source: MCAM

Just a small sampling of the artistic treasures left to Mills can be gleaned from the 92 artists displayed at the Major Works Exhibition in 1976 and the 69 featured at the Mills College Centennial Exhibition in 1956. You might recognize names like Renoir, Rembrandt, Raphael, Modigliani, Durer, Gauguin, Goya, Kandinsky, Klee, Matisse, Munch, Picasso, Man Ray, William Blake, Ansel Adams, Jasper Johns. There are thousands and thousands more - does anyone even know the full extent and value of the collection? Is it going to be appraised as part of the mergers & acquisitions process?

Will these treasures stay at Mills? Or will some of them be divvied up and shared amongst Northeastern's other satellite campuses? I bet WeWork SF would love to have a Matisse or Picasso on the walls.

Jazz Suite, Henri Matisse. Source: MCAM

Photograph of Picasso by Man Ray. Source: MCAM

munch_self_portrait_with_a_cigarette_1941.2.png

Edvard Munch, Self-Portrait with Cigarette (1908). Source: MCAM

Wandering Shadows by William Wendt, 1925. Source: MCAM

DISCLAIMER

DISCUSSION OF INFORMATION IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST. PUBLIC COMMENTARY WELCOME. WE PROVIDE CITATIONS TO PRIMARY SOURCES, FOLLOW THE HYPERLINKS. ANY PERSON MENTIONED HERE IS INVITED TO SHARE THEIR SIDE OF THE STORY IN THE COMMENT SECTION. ALL IMAGES USED FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES UNDER FAIR USE PROVISIONS OF THE COPYRIGHT ACT. WE ARE NOT AFFILIATED WITH ANY ORGANIZED MILLS COLLEGE GROUP, BUT WE JOIN THEM ALL IN RESISTANCE TO ANY ATTEMPTED TAKEOVER.

#MILLSFOREVER

14. The Art of the Steal 2.0 - Billion Dollar Black Holes From Barnes to Bender