Opponents Promise To Block

July 11th, 2007
By Jim McCaffrey
The Bulletin

Philadelphia - Montgomery County announced Thursday it is officially courting the Barnes Foundation.

That is, it will file a petition to block the move of the famous Barnes art collection to Philadelphia's Benjamin Franklin Parkway. The petition will be filed before the end of the month.

A wedding to Montgomery County is something the Barnes Foundation clearly wants no part of. It only has eyes for Philadelphia.

The Barnes Foundation last month spurned Montco's marriage offer, even though the county offered to provide at least $50 million for the Barnes if its collection would stay.

In his reply to the Montco offer Barnes President Bernard Watson said the foundation preferred to continue its plans to elope to Philadelphia, taking its dowry - a world-famous art collection worth $30 billion - with it.

On Thursday, a press conference held at the Montgomery County Courthouse brought something rare to Norristown: a real bipartisan turnout. Republican Congressman Jim Gerlach and two Republican county commissioners, Jim Matthews and Tom Ellis, were joined on the podium by the Democratic County Commissioner Ruth Damsker and a Democratic commissioner from Lower Merion, Brian Gordon.

Attorney Mark Schwartz, a private attorney hired by the county to work on keeping the Barnes art collection in its Merion gallery, and Deputy County Solicitor Carolyn Carluccio, who is assigned to work with Schwartz in the Barnes matter, announced they will be filing a petition this month with the Montgomery County Orphans Court to block the Barnes Foundation's plan to move its art collection to a new home in the city.

The petition, expected to be filed before month's end, will complain the Barnes' has not properly fulfilled its duty to explore all options to keep the collection in Merion as Dr. Albert Barnes, the founder, intended.

"Their rejection of our offer showed once again their mission is to move not to their fiduciary responsibility," an exasperated Schwartz complained. "They turned down a viable alternative. We are going to have to file a lawsuit."

"When the county turned us down we had no other alternative but to go forward with the petition in the Orphans' Court," Montco Commissioner Tom Ellis acknowledged.

Gerlach was at the press conference to announce he will push for the Barnes Foundation to be placed on the National Historic Register. That designation would make the Foundation eligible for many federal, state, and private grants.

Gerlach explained he held a conference call with the National Park Service recently. There are two designations issued by the Parks Service: National Landmark and National Register of Historic Places. Thanks to a preliminary assessment submitted by the Friends of the Barnes to the National Park Service, Gerlach believes there is a chance the foundation will be designated eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.

To actually be placed on the register, however, the Barnes Foundation would have to agree to the designation.

"I don't know if the Barnes board intends on doing that. They have taken a very firm approach about what there mission is to be - moving to Philadelphia," the congressman conceded.

He added that the designation would be just another "piece of information to the Orphan's Court in deciding whether the Barnes is fulfilling its fiduciary duty. If the board applies for the designation new resources open to it. The Barnes would be eligible for grants from Save Our Treasurers, The National Endowment of the Arts, and the National Council for the Humanities."

Montgomery County offered to buy all real estate owned by Barnes Foundation for "at least" $50 million. The property would be purchased with proceeds from a county backed bond sale. The Barnes would be able to fund its endowment, pay back the bonds, and, because of the low interest rates on the bonds, still have approximately $1 million annually left for its fund balance.

The Montco deal, of course, is contingent on the foundation agreeing to keep the collection in Lower Merion.

Schwartz claims there is precedent for Montgomery County contributing to maintain an arts collection in the county.

"The county already owns the Audubon Museum Collection," he pointed out.

"They've made a donation to the Revolutionary War Museum."

He also cited the Walker Museum in Minneapolis and the Mercer Museum in Doylestown as examples of partnerships similar to the ones Montgomery County is proposing with the Barnes.

Carluccio claims it took Montgomery County a while to reach this point because at first she wasn't certain Montco had standing to bring the petition to block the Barnes move.

After Schwartz answered the county's bid, she said, they managed to work a strategy out.

"We are committed," she assured.

Carluccio mentioned among the many new items Orphans' Court Judge Stanley Ott will likely have to look at is the likelihood that Lower Merion will change its zoning to allow the Barnes Foundation to receive up to 140,000 visitors a year. That decision could be made as soon as next week.