On Tuesday, January 22, 2008, Martin Morse Wooster spoke at The Lincoln Institute Breakfast Forum at the University Club in Washington, D.C.  Martin Morse Wooster wrote an important book on “donor intent” for the Capital Research Center.  All attendees received a copy of Martin's book.  He told us a fascinating story involving a $6.5 billion art collection, the nation’s first historically black college, aggressive lawyers, and Philadelphia’s upper class elite.

Philadelphia native Albert Barnes – who grew up in the blue-collar Kensington neighborhood made famous by the movie Rocky – made his fortune in patent medicine and assembled the most impressive private art collection in the world. It has 69 Cezannes (more than in all the museums in Paris), 60 Matisses, 44 Picassos, 18 Rousseaus, 14 Modiglianis and no fewer than 180 Renoirs.

When he died in a car crash in 1950, it was discovered he left control of his foundation – the Barnes Foundation – to historically-black Lincoln University, with specific instructions on how and where to display his art collection to be enjoyed by the common man. He specifically instructed that the art “establishment” in Philadelphia have nothing to do with it.

But over the last several years, there has been an ongoing legal effort to break the will and move the collection to a downtown museum, against his specific wishes.

Pictures of the January 2008 Lincoln Institute
Breakfast Forum Featuring Martin Morse Wooster
 

Martin Wooster, speaker	Attendees listen to Martin Wooster.
Jay Parker presents Certificate of Appreciation to January Breakfast Forum Speaker Martin Wooster.	Ms. Staci Johnson gets an autographed copy of Martin Wooster's book on philantrophy and donor intent.
Martin Wooster sets forth the research in his compelling book about philanthropy in America and the problem of donor intent... Especially as it related to America's oldest institution of higher education, Lincoln University in Pennsylvania and the art collection of the Barnes Foundation.