Wednesday, May 16, 2012
On Saturday, the Barnes Museum opens to the public at its new home on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia.
After nearly 90 years in Merion Station, Albert Barnes' world-renowned art collection has made its controversial move to Philadelphia, and will be unveiled to the public in its new home on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway on Saturday. The collection—which includes works by Van Gogh, Renoir, Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso, Soutine, Modigliani and Degas, along with some lesser known artists—is estimated to be worth $25 billion. Collector Dr. Albert Barnes created the Barnes Foundation in 1922 as an educational institution, with the philosophy of making art accessible to ordinary people. He requested that his collection never be moved or even rearranged. The Barnes, of course, has moved—and it will be unveiled to the public on Saturday, May 19 in a …
Monday, March 12, 2012
The Barnes Foundation had asked for more than $60,000 in sanctions.
Judge Stanley Ott last week upheld sanctions against the Friends of the Barnes and another petitioner who brought suit to stop the move of the Barnes collection from Merion to Philadelphia, according to MainLineMediaNews. Ott ordered several individual members of the Friends group to pay $25,000, according to MainLineMediaNews, and attorney Richard Ralph Feudal, who had filed a separate petition and had written a book on the Barnes Foundation’s saga, to pay $15,000. In October 2011, Ott rejected the request to reopen his 2004 decision, which permitted the move to Philadelphia, and ordered the Friends to pay court the Barnes Foundation’s court costs and lawyers' fees, totaling more than $60,000. Click her to read the court opinion and …
Thursday, February 2, 2012
The Friends' attorney is seeking relief from court costs.
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Thursday, February 2, 2012
The Merion-based Friends of the Barnes group, which has been challenging the Barnes Foundation's move to Center City, returns to Montgomery County Orphans’ Court for a hearing Thursday morning before Judge Stanley Ott. This time, the matter is the financial sanctions against the group sought by the Barnes Foundation. The hearing is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. As usual, the Friends of the Barnes will be represented by attorney Samuel C. Stretton, Esquire, who filed the Friends’ February 2011 petition, which brought what it called new evidence from the documentary “The Art of the Steal,” and alleging that former Pennsylvania Attorney General Mike Fisher “appeared to have acted improperly in the case and had a conflict not revealed in earlier …
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Judge Stanley Ott upheld his previous decision—the Barnes Foundation's art collection will move to Philadelphia.
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, argued before Ott that proceedings should be re-opened regarding the move, based on revelations and comments from the …
Friday, September 16, 2011
The announcement of a May 19 debut was made at a Thursday press conference.
In case you missed it, Philly.com reported on Thursday's press conference on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, where it was announced that the Barnes Foundation's new museum will open May 19. The report quoted officials as saying the opening "will be followed by 10 days of special visits to the new building and gardens, concluding with 60 hours of free, round-the-clock open access to the public on Memorial Day weekend, May 26 to 28." In response to the announcement, the Merion-based group Friends of the Barnes issued a statement. "A lawsuit pending in Montgomery County Orphan's Court that challenges the dismantling of the Barnes Foundation in Merion is inspiring more political theater by the Barnes Foundation administration," it read. The …
Monday, September 5, 2011
A prolific Patch blogger lends an invaluable talent to a medium that could use a few more calming influences.
When we put out the call in the Spring that Patch was recruiting bloggers for our new “Local Voices” initiative, I asked for folks from Ardmore, Merion and Wynnewood who would be interested in writing about one thing or another. Gardening or taxes. Food, music, social issues of the day. Motherhood or the weather. That kind of thing. And we’ve gotten some great bloggers to do just that—to write, and write well, about what they know and what they love (and sometimes what they don’t care for all that much). What I didn’t expect to gain was our very own painter—Patch blogger Nancy Herman. As a writer and news guy for my entire career, working for Patch has done a lot to remind me of the power of images—photos and video—in journalism and in the…
Monday, August 1, 2011
Monday afternoon, the Friends of the Barnes will once again face Judge Stanley Ott, urging him to consider re-opening a case most people thought was long shut.
As the Friends of the Barnes goes to court today in what appears to be the bottom of the 9th inning in a very lopsided game, many fans have long since left the stadium. There are a few die-hards left in the bleachers, sure, and a handful still standing behind glass in the air-conditioned luxury boxes, talking business with one eye on the batter and the imposing closer he faces. But most people consider the game long over. After all, wasn’t July 3 the final day to see the world-renowned private Barnes Foundation collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist art and African artifacts at its Merion home? Scores of media outlets, including this one (a month before and then again on the day of), did features about the final Sunday, “when …
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Writer Liz Spikol says the Barnes fight has been a ridiculous case of skewed priorities.
Liz Spikol, a writer and blogger for Philadelphia Magazine, is this month’s unofficial Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest on the Main Line. Her piece in the magazine’s June issue, republished Wednesday on the magazine’s “Philly Post” blog, is entitled, “Barnes Fight is Disproportionate to the Debate’s Importance.” It drew some 30 responses in the first day alone, most of them vociferously attacking her premise, her facts, and her standing as a journalist. “For a city that suffers so many grievous social ills—poverty, funding cuts, horrific public schools—it’s something of a mystery why this particular battle became the high-profile, attention-sucking bandit that it did,” Spikol wrote. “Perhaps it has something to do with money.” Spikol, a …
WOO
9:12 pm on Monday, May 13, 2013
Well then, be careful about all the "Hope and Change" all of you idealists think you can institute. If his estate was worth 25 billion dollars the govt would have long ago confiscated that in the form of taxes. They cant exactly confiscate the art, can they? Not since Nazi Germany anyway. Grow up. To think its so important to preserve a dead mans wish to the last detail is absurd. Life is for the… more ›