Neighbors Sue to Keep Barnes from Moving

August 28th, 2007
By Tom Infield
Philadelphia Inquirer

At a gathering in Merion to announce a lawsuit against the Barnes Foundation, attorney Mark Schwartz fields questions. Neighbors have sued to keep the major art collection from moving to Philadelphia.A cardboard cutout of the Rocky statue attests to the group's admittedly uphill fight. Story, B5.

They refuse to give up.

Almost three years after a judge issued an order permitting the Barnes Foundation to move its billion-dollar art collection to Philadelphia, a group of Barnes neighbors in Merion filed a lawsuit yesterday seeking to halt the move.

The action in Montgomery County Court asks Judge Stanley Ott to dissolve the Barnes board of directors and appoint a receiver to run the foundation under his supervision.

A leader of the Friends of the Barnes Foundation was candid in saying he knew that the odds of reopening the issue in court were probably slim at this late date.

But Walter Herman, a retired physician, said he was hopeful enough to give it a try - and contribute toward paying the $75,000 in legal bills the group already has rung up.

"We're optimistic, or we wouldn't be doing this," he said.

Herman and his wife, Nancy, were hosts to a lawn gathering yesterday that drew about 60 people, including many of the museum's closest neighbors on Latchs Lane.

The Hermans had set up a lectern amid hollies and rhododendrons. Behind the lectern was a cardboard cutout of the Rocky statue - symbol of the underdog - that stands at the foot of the Philadelphia Art Museum steps.

Along the lane, across from the spiked black iron fencing that surrounds the Barnes, the neighbors had posted signs that read "The Barnes Belongs in Merion" and "Join the fight to save the Barnes."

One question that Ott will have to answer is whether the neighbors have legal standing to bring the case to court.

If he decides they do, then he'll have to decide what is so new since 2004 that it warrants reopening a battle that ran for almost a decade, embroiled the art world internationally and left all parties worn out and poorer from all the legal bills.

The case involves the will of Dr. Albert Barnes, who built one of the world's greatest private art collections and decreed upon his death in 1951 that it could never be changed or moved. Ott agreed to break the will after Barnes leaders said the foundation would fail without the financial benefits that would come from relocating to a better location in Philadelphia.

The Friends of the Barnes appealed this summer for intervention from the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office. But the agency refused, saying it considered the issue closed.

The neighbors argue that Barnes leaders, intent on a move to Philadelphia, should be replaced because they have ignored options to keep the Barnes in Merion.

"I think that drastic situations call for drastic remedies," said Mark Schwartz, the group's attorney.

Andrew Stewart, a Barnes spokesman, said he had no comment on the suit.

The neighbors group blasted the board for rejecting a new offer from Montgomery County to buy the foundation property and lease it back to the foundation. Proponents say this could net the Barnes about $1 million a year in new income.

Montgomery County commissioners have said they intend to file a suit similar to the one filed yesterday by the Friends of the Barnes.

Neighbors also contend the Barnes misled Ott in 2004 by failing to inform him that the state had put $100 million in the capital budget to aid a possible move to Philadelphia. This was at a time the board was telling Ott it was doing everything it could to stay in Merion.

Among folks sitting on the Hermans' lawn were four women - longtime friends - who had walked down from a nearby apartment building.

They said they had watched this fight for a decade and weren't certain anything would change. But they said it was worth a shot.

"If the judge is really honest, he'll see he did not really know all the ramifications," said Irene Frank.

"We've been told it's a closed issue," said Harriet Lam. "But we're still trying."