What can be done about the Barnes Debacle? Maybe the Barnes Friends should take their show on the road and picket Philadelphia City Hall? And Tom Murray? That's a mighty fine editorial you're sporting this week....

Posted on Tue, May 20, 2008
Judge in Barnes case: See no evil, hear no evil
By Robert Zaller

Judge Stanley R. Ott's dismissal last week of the petitions filed in Orphans Court by Montgomery County and the Friends of the Barnes Foundation to halt the Foundation's intended move to Philadelphia should have come as no surprise to observers of this judicial dilettante, whose career will be defined by his failure of stewardship over one of the most important art collections in the world.The basis of Judge Ott's decision was that the County and the Friends lacked standing to bring their respective petitions, which were based on the County's proposal for a bond-leaseback arrangement of the Barnes estate that would have satisfied the requirement in Judge Ott's 2004 ruling of a $50 million endowment for the Foundation, and a new Lower Merion zoning ordinance that permits an increase in annual public attendance at the Barnes from 62,400 to 144,000, which would more than cover the Foundation's alleged operating deficit. Judge Ott thus closed the door that he himself had teased open when, in response to information from a private citizen that the Pennsylvania legislature had secretly appropriated $100 million to move the Barnes in its 2002 capital budget (information the State Attorney General as well as the Barnes trustees had a sworn obligation to disclose at the 2004 hearings, but did not), he suggested that such a disclosure would be germane to any future reopening of the Barnes "saga," as he calls it.

Now he says that only the Attorney General's Office would have standing to bring the case back to his court - the same office that concealed the fact of the appropriation (as well as its own scandalous role in bribing the Barnes' Lincoln University-appointed trustees with a further $80 million in taxpayer subsidies).

Nice footwork, Judge.

What did Judge Ott himself know, and when did he know it? He knew at the 2004 hearings that the Barnes trustees had squandered the foundation's original endowment, much of it in outrageous suits against Lower Merion Township and Barnes neighbors that a federal court had dismissed as "cynical and frivolous." He knew that the Barnes was even then expending millions of dollars in contesting the court's fee judgment against it. He knew that the trustees had overstated their operating deficit, either in a willful effort to deceive him or in a stunning display of actuarial incompetence.....Who, one may ask, is abdicating his responsibility here? Judge Ott has heard oral arguments that have entered upon the record of his court both the continued malfeasance and delinquency of the Barnes Foundation Board and its politico corporate masters, and the terms of an offer that would render the Barnes solvent and accommodate all legitimate public interest in access to its unique and matchless collection. That offer remains on the table. All Judge Ott has to do is pick it up.

Tell us why you won't do it, judge.

Robert Zaller is Professor of History at Drexel University, and a member of the Friends of the Barnes Foundation.

Posted on Tue, May 20, 2008
Barnes, slogans and continuing the fight
By Tom Murray

Some sudden thoughts and housecleaning items as we gear up for Memorial Day weekend and the unofficial start of summer. And remember, give me a call if you need an update on what's going on in your town when you are enjoying your summer vacation.The fat lady hasn't sung yet, but it appears that the Barnes Museum's days as a Lower Merion landmark will soon be history.

While it looks bleak after last week's ruling by a Montgomery Count judge, nothing will be official in my eyes until the moving truck is on Latches Lane. I have seen how Philadelphia has messed up a lot of things over the years, and I'm still not totally convinced they are capable of pulling this off.

But in the meantime, last week's ruling by Judge Ott closed the door for the Friends of the Barnes and Montgomery County from reopening the case and presenting new evidence that something smelled funny when this case first went to court.

The new evidence is that the people behind the move allegedly cooked some numbers to make it look real bad and allegedly weren't very forthcoming with money they were going to receive from former Mayor and current sports commentator, Gov. Ed Rendell.

The Friends of the Barnes and Montgomery county wanted to bring this out in court, but Judge Ott's decision last week won't give them a chance.

I have written on this topic in the past and I'm sure there will be a few more editorials down the road. I have let it be known that I couldn't tell a Renoir from a Remmington Steel, and my art of choice is played with a ball or puck.

But that doesn't mean I don't have an opinion.

What was done to Albert Barnes in death, in my eyes, is the same as if someone went into the museum one night while he was alive and stole the entire collection. His dying wish was for the collection to be kept in Merion...