Barnes Collection on the move...

A US judge has ruled that the financially strapped Barnes Foundation could move its fabled art collection from a cozy suburb to a museum quarter in downtown Philadelphia, where more people could see it. This was seen as the only realistic way to save the Barnes from bankruptcy and salvage its prized legacy.
Albert Barnes, a patent-medicine millionaire famously stipulated that none of the pictures could be lent, sold or even moved from the walls of the neo-classical galleries that he had built for it in the mid-1920s in Merion, Pennsylvania.
Barnes also restricted access to the collection's legendary riches including - 170 Renoirs, 55 Cezannes, 20 Picassos - by limiting visitors to 1,200 a week - a rule that seemed almost to heighten the collection's cult appeal for people longing to glimpse masterpieces like Cezanne's "Card Players" or van Gogh's "Postman" in a quirkily intimate setting.
Projections from a feasibility study indicate that once the foundation opens in downtown Philadelphia, it will attract about 260,000 visitors its first year.
Irish Art