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August 28, 2007

Barnes Foundation May Face Another Court Battle From Local Residents

Residents in Merion, Pa., went to court on Monday to try to halt the move of the Barnes Foundation’s billion-dollar art collection to Philadelphia from its current home in Merion, almost three years after a judge ruled that the foundation could move the collection, reports The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The residents’ lawsuit, filed in Montgomery County court, asks Judge Stanley Ott to disband the foundation’s board and appoint an overseer to run the foundation. The judge will now have to decide if any new information warrants reopening a fight that has been waged by the foundation and the local group — called the Friends of the Barnes — for nearly a decade.

Albert Barnes, who built the art collection and died in 1951, said in his will that the collection could never be changed or moved. Mr. Ott agreed to break the will after Barnes leaders said the foundation would falter financially if it did not move to a location in Philadelphia.

A Barnes spokesman told the newspaper he had no comment on the lawsuit.

Tuesday August 28, 2007 | Permalink

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