Saw this over at Writemarsh:

"...it was just a matter of when....How can they fight so hard to keep it and then just "roll over"?"

So yes, The Barnes Friends are abandoning their fight in the court system, which is their right of course, as the legal fees must have been high....How will this impact the Attorney General issue?

Ahh well, cheer up, now that Lower Merion will cease to be known for a world famous art collection, it still has the fallback position of being the township of poor development decisions.....

A suggestion for the Barnes friends if they are giving up an appeal, but not the fight? An old fashioned protest. Get your marching sneakers on and don't worry about being so polite. Make some noise...try Philly City Hall to start....

Posted on Wed, Jun 18, 2008
‘Friends’ will not appeal ruling
By MARGARET GIBBONS , Times Herald Staff

COURTHOUSE — The grassroots Friends of the Barnes Tuesday announced that it will not appeal a Montgomery County Court ruling barring the organization from re-opening litigation that cleared the way for the renowned Barnes art collection to be moved from Lower Merion to a new museum in Philadelphia.

The announcement comes on the heels of a similar decision by Montgomery County to abandon its legal effort to re-open the same litigation.

The Friends of the Barnes’ decision comes as no surprise because its members have said they believed that, of the two, the county had the best chance of succeeding.

Fight to halt move of Barnes Foundation ends
By Derrick Nunnally
Inquirer Staff Writer

The court fight over moving the Barnes Foundation's $5 billion art collection from Lower Merion Township to Philadelphia has ended with a whimper in a Norristown courthouse office.
There, a Friends of the Barnes Foundation member had appeared shortly before closing time Monday with a check and appeals documents to prolong the fight. But after a last minute legal consultation on her cellphone, Evelyn Yaari of the Lower Merion-based group instead ended the years-long case.

"I had to go to the clerk and say, 'I'm very sorry I asked you to do that, but actually, I'm not going to file the appeal,' " Yaari said. "It was a sad moment."

Along with Montgomery County government, the citizens' group was fighting to keep one of the world's premier collections of Impressionist art from moving to Philadelphia despite what Albert C. Barnes ordered in his will before he died in 1951.

Montgomery County Judge Stanley R. Ott ruled in 2004 that the art could move, but the Friends of the Barnes only conceded defeat after the county said Monday it would not challenge Ott's May rejection of a request to reopen the case...."We recognized very well that the issue of standing, narrow as they were, did not favor us at all," said Walter Herman. "I live across the street, but that's it."

The county's decision not to appeal had become the latest in a series of issues to polarize county commissioners.....County Commission chairman James R. Matthews and vice chairman Joseph M. Hoeffel each said they feared costly sanctions for appealing a case without merit, and demurred on Commissioner Bruce Castor's offer to pay appeals costs himself.

Hoeffel called that bid "grandiose." In a statement, Castor replied that the decision to quit fighting was "disappointing and difficult to comprehend."

Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts spokesman Art Heinz said yesterday that he had not heard of an appeals court ordering a cash sanction against a party for filing an appeal.

Though their court fight is over, Friends of the Barnes members say they will not quit contesting the move until the art has been taken down from the Barnes Foundation.

Next up: efforts to sway public sentiment against the move, including asking some Barnes donors to rethink their support.