As Paintings Are Being Packed Opponents Are Still in Court
Merion, Pa.—Visiting the late Albert Barnes’ vast art collection at his mansion in the suburbs of Philadelphia, you would not know that its fate still is being battled over in the courts.
As visitors calmly enjoy the art downstairs, and the art upstairs is being carefully packed for safe transport, a local judge has reopened a complaint by those who oppose the plan to move the collection of more than 900 paintings to a new building downtown.
On March 29, the court ruled that the Pennsylvania attorney general and the Barnes Foundation had until mid-April to rebut any final legal claims against the move. A citizens group, anchored in the township, has opposed the change of venue for years. This is their latest, and perhaps final, legal maneuver.
The legal drama around the Barnes collection—now valued at between $6 billion and $25 billion—is one of the most drawn out in American art history. Ever since Dr. Barnes died in 1951, various interest have tried to open up his massive collection, which he controlled posthumously through the directives of his will: it would not tour, be sold, or be rearranged. In the 1990s, however, when the Barnes Foundation faced financial problems, the paintings did go on tour and in 2004 the court allowed a move to a new building in Philadelphia’s museum district. The ground was broken in November 2009 and the modern building is nearly completed, open to the public in a year.
Whatever the legal outcome, for the next few months the Barnes mansion, site of his art collection, continues to host visitors by appointment, taking in a limit of 450 people a day, four days a week. The mansion is located on twelve acres of gardens and woods in an upscale suburb that once protested the traffic problem created by art visitors to the Barnes. Now, however, that same township is fighting to keep it. The mansion and art collection have essentially put Lower Merion Township and its Montgomery County on the map, even worldwide.
As an alternative to the downtown move, the opponents say the mansion could allow a greater number of visitors and also use a shuttle to bring them from downtown. Based on the admission fees, this would raise the revenue necessary to keep the old building going just as Dr. Barnes had liked.
In creating his foundation in the 1920s, Dr. Barnes rejected the idea of being a high-tone museum. Instead he wanted to present the art as a look-and-see “educational” experience for ordinary people. Accordingly, the paintings and artifacts are hung and arranged by Dr. Barnes’ own eccentric lights. A native of Philadelphia, he became a millionaire by inventing an antiseptic. Then he spent the rest of his life buying art. For better or worse, Dr. Barnes was always at odds with the Philadelphia establishment, especially its wealthy philanthropic families: Annenberg, Pew, and the folks behind the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Those organizations, in alliance with the city and state, helped the modern-day Barnes trustees push through the decision to go downtown. For some, this was a colossal art grab by the powers that be. A book and documentary both argue a conspiracy behind the downtown move (indeed, the movie turned up an on-camera quote by the former attorney general that has reopened the court hearing).
Before his death, Dr. Barnes became friends with the president of the historic black college, Lincoln University, and in his will gave the university trusteeship of the collection. The black leadership of the Barnes Foundation continues, but the school and its leaders could not escape being embroiled in a medley of financial fiascos. The issue of race became sensitive amid the charges and counter charges on the fate of the art.
Dr. Barnes amassed one the world’s strongest collections of French Impressionists, post-Impressionists, and modern paintings (not to mention pre-modern works, African sculpture, furniture, and ironware). It is resplendent with art by El Greco, Renoir, Manet, Cezanne, Gauguin, Matisse, Picasso, Modigliani and more.
Like the art, no one doubts that the new downtown museum is a beautiful work of architecture. It aims to draw 180,000 visitors a year compared to the mansion’s current 93,600. Still, the costs are turning out greater than expected. Taxpayers may be left holding a very large bill for a private foundation’s art educational mission. There is also no guarantee that a high downtown museum attendance will last: this is the plight of all art museums, which live from one blockbuster show to the next.
If plans go through—it would be a shock if they don’t—the paintings will all be displayed in the new museum in the exact same way Dr. Barnes arranged them in his mansion, arrayed on two floors in about a dozen rooms. Opponents of the move are accurate when they say that it will mark the end of one of the world’s most unique, private, and eccentric art collections. How it looks in a brand new museum will be something worth waiting to see . . . maybe.
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