Foundations to contribute $330M to help protect DIA collection, Detroit pensions

[bailey]

Perhaps a read on what was behind the move from a location that was just 2 blocks outside the city limits to a location in Philadelphia proper... the museum found that they were being blocked from granting more public access by that most common of reasons... the NIMBY crowd... in this case rich neighbors of the museum in the wealthy enclave of Lower Merion didn't want a lot of people in their neck of the woods....

http://articles.philly.com/1996-06-2...-robert-marmon

So they didn't move for some nefarious reason...

You need to concede that one there Gistok... regardless the short the drive, the fact remains that Barnes' instructions were made specifically as a giant fuck you to the Philly art community and the museum itself. He didn't want them benefiting from the collection...now they are.

[Barnes was] An irascible New Deal eccentric with a keen eye [[he was an early North American collector of Matisse and Picasso), Barnes disdained the Philadelphia Museum of Art [[located about four miles from his Foundation) as "a house of artistic and intellectual prostitution... The main function of the museum has been to serve as a pedestal upon which a clique of socialites pose as patrons of the arts."

That the art now resides there, after a decade of legal battles and pretty shady dealings. Regardless of the cover taken behind "zoning and traffic concerns" the move was in direct contravention to the guys last instructions and it was done only due to a hostile take over of the foundation.