Judge Denies Last-Ditch Effort to Keep Barnes Collection in Merion

Editor's note: This story has been updated from the original, posted earlier Thursday, to include reactions from the Friends of the Barnes. 

In what may be the final blow to petitioners seeking to keep the Barnes Foundation's priceless art collection in Merion, Judge Stanley Ott of Montgomery County Orphans' Court reaffirmed Thursday morning his previous decision that the groups' latest arguments have no merit, and that the Barnes should proceed with its move to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia.

On Aug. 1, attorney Samuel Stretton, representing the Friends of the Barnes, BarnesWatch, and various individuals, should be re-opened regarding the move, based on revelations and comments from the 2010 documentary “The Art of the Steal” that were previously unavailable. 

The opinion is similar to a dismissal Ott made in 2008, he said. Then, “as now, when confronted with preliminary objections contesting their standing,” the Friends of the Barnes argued that their involvement and standing was so “enmeshed” with the merits of the case that “preliminary objections should be overruled and the situation vetted in depth.

“This is well-trod ground, and we must reach the same conclusion as we did in 2008.”  —Judge Stanley Ott, Oct. 6, 2011.

“In the 2008 opinion, we reviewed the law of standing in Pennsylvania and determined that the ‘enmeshment’ argument could not prevail,” he wrote in today’s opinion. “Presently, we have essentially the same party making exactly the same argument. This is well-trod ground, and we must reach the same conclusion as we did in 2008.”

Members of the Friends of the Barnes said that an appeal would be filed.

“My trust in the judicial system is shaken badly, because of the arcane issue of 'standing,' no group was ever able to argue forcefully on behalf of the Barnes,” said Walter Herman, a longtime member of the Friends. “There was never discovery, depositions under oath, etc.—the things that make a trial adversarial and fair.”

The court also found that “some portion of the fees and costs incurred by counsel for The Barnes Foundation should be borne by the unsuccessful petitioners.”

Representatives of the Friends of the Barnes issued a statement after the verdict: “The deep wounds inflicted on the Barnes Trust and the public through manipulations by the powerful and politically-connected remain untreated. The important issues in the case remain unexamined. The dismantling of the Barnes is as wrong now as it always has been.”

A copy of the 10-page decision is attached to this story.

Ott ruled in December 2004 that the case made by the Barnes Foundation (led by high-profile city and state elected officials and civic leaders and foundations) that it needed to move to survive “showed clearly and convincingly the need to deviate from the terms of Dr. Barnes’ indenture.”