Art Museum Outside Philadelphia Plans Move



By Ralph Blumenthal of the New York Times



The financially beleaguered Barnes Foundation filed court papers today asking for permission to move its remarkable Impressionist-laden art collection from its longtime Main Line suburban home to a new downtown building that would be constructed with $150 million in grants from two other foundations.



At a news conference, the foundation's officers said the sudden but long-awaited move was necessary to save one of the world's greatest art collections, but any move faces considerable legal hurdles. A relocation and other proposed changes would contravene the will of Dr. Albert C. Barnes, the eccentric millionaire who established the trove, with an estimated worth of $25 billion, as a quirky, anti-elitist academy that because of local restrictions only 1,200 visitors a month can see. ........



A likely new location, they said, would be Benjamin Franklin Parkway, a museum-lined boulevard anchored by the imposing Philadelphia Museum of Art.





Here's a source for more about this extraordinary institution and its collections: The Barnes Foundation