Opponents of Barnes Foundation Art Relocation Are Back in Court

Now more than three years after a judge in Pennsylvania ruled that the Barnes Foundation’s $6 billion (with a “B”) art collection could be moved from Lower Merion Township in Montgomery County Pennsylvania to Philadelphia, opponents of the relocation are back in court arguing that the collection should stay put and not move to Philly.  Here is an excerpt from the article:

Speaking for the move’s opponents, Carluccio and Eric Spade, attorney for the Montgomery County-based Friends of the Barnes Foundation, said the financial stakes have changed during the last three-plus years.

Lower Merion Township changed a zoning ordinance in July to allow 140,000 visitors annually to view the collection, twice as many as before. Montgomery County has offered to issue $50 million in bonds to buy the institution’s Latchs Lane real estate and lease it back to the foundation. The Friends of the Barnes Foundation is trying to get the current site recognized as a national historic landmark, which would make it newly eligible for preservation grants.

For the entire article, see “Opponents of Barnes Foundation move urge judge to reopen case” in the March 25, 2008, issue of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

DAB