County Hopes to Reopen Litigation to Keep Barnes Museum

May 31, 2007
By Margaret Gibbons
Times Herald

Montgomery County will make an effort to reopen the Barnes litigation in an attempt to block the move of the museum from Lower Merion to a new home in Philadelphia.

"The move is gaining momentum and we have to act now," said county Commissioners Chairman Thomas J. Ellis Thursday. Ellis cited last week's decision by the Fairmount Park Commission to approve a 99-year lease with the Barnes Foundation for property the commission controls along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

Ellis said the county commissioners next week will take action on the hiring of Bryn Mawr lawyer Mark D. Schwartz to represent them in the legal action. "We don't expect the litigation to be lengthy or costly," said Ellis, adding that Schwartz will be paid $200 an hour for his work.

The Barnes museum, which owns more than $2 billion in art including paintings by Matisse, Renoir and Cezanne, is located in Lower Merion on property owned by the late Dr. Albert C. Barnes.

Struggling financially, the Barnes Foundation went to the Montgomery County Court to get the approval it needed to relocate the museum to Philadelphia to make the museum economically viable. Court approval, which was subsequently given after protracted litigation, was necessary because Barnes, in his will, had specifically detailed that the collection should remain in place.

Ellis said he believes that sufficient new evidence has been uncovered by The Friends of the Barnes Foundation, a citizens' group opposed to the move, to warrant the reopening of the case.

Schwartz has been working with the Friends group in the developing of this new evidence and the county will not have to pay for any of the research he will use in petitioning that the case be reopened, said Ellis.

Ellis said the county also is working on several financial angles that could block the move.

Calling the museum a "treasured institution and part of the fabric, character and culture of Lower Merion and Montgomery County," the commissioners in January unanimously passed a resolution saying that the Barnes museum should be kept in Lower Merion.

The commissioners said they believe that there are less drastic options that can substantially improve the financial condition of the Barnes Foundation than moving the art collection to Philadelphia.