Posted on September 22, 2004

Hearing on Future of Barnes Foundation Begins

The second — and most likely decisive — hearing on the future of the financially troubled Barnes Foundation in Merion, Pennsylvania, opened in the Montgomery County Orphans' Court before Judge Stanley Ott this week and is expected to last five days, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

At issue is whether or not the Barnes should be permitted to move its multibillion-dollar art collection containing Renoirs, Cezannes, Matisses, and Picassos from the museum built for it in a suburb of Philadelphia by founder Albert Barnes to a new museum in central Philadelphia. Such a move would defy Barnes' written wishes but, according to the foundation, would solve its chronic budget deficits. Three large philanthropic organizations in the area — the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Lenfest and Annenberg Foundations — have pledged to help raise $150 million for the Barnes if it moves downtown.

However, three Barnes art students have filed suit to stop the move, pointing out that the foundation could finance a new endowment by selling off land and art it has in storage. The Barnes case "is a biggie," said Ildiko DeAngelis, director of museum studies at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and a former assistant general counsel at the Smithsonian Institution. "A lot of people are very worried about this generally. Everyone wants to have a wonderful museum in Philadelphia...but, honestly, I am concerned with the precedent it would set."

The hearing will feature top U.S. art experts. On the Barnes' witness list are Jeremy A. Sabloff, former director of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology; James N. Wood, former director and president of the Art Institute of Chicago; and Elizabeth von Habsburg of the art-appraisal firm Masterson Gurr-Johns. Testifying on behalf of the students are Debra J. Force, former head of the American paintings department at Christie's in New York and a former vice president of its appraisals department; Richard L. Feigen, a New York-based art dealer; and Marie C. Malaro, former director of the graduate program in museum studies at George Washington University.

Albert Barnes left strict instructions when he died in 1951 on how to run the Barnes, which he founded as a school rather than a museum. According to many, the restrictions have maintained the uniqueness of the institution but have also made it exceptionally difficult to run. In the end, Judge Ott wrote in January, "we need to be persuaded that the move to Philadelphia is the least- drastic deviation that will stabilize the foundation's future....The court must insist on some reason to believe that the bold proposals before us will accomplish the desired ends."