Barnes Foundation Breaks Ground In Philadelphia

JOANN LOVIGLIO

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The Barnes Foundation broke ground Friday on a new museum, the final chapter in its embittering quest to break its founder's will and move its multibillion-dollar art collection from the suburbs to downtown.

About 150 people, most of them from Philadelphia's arts and philanthropic communities, were on hand for the event, which took place under an enormous tent that blocked out the chilly rain — and the view of a group protesting the move.

Barnes board chairman Bernard C. Watson told the crowd of 200 guests that the move guarantees the collection will be protected and ends the legal wrangling in its "besieged suburban setting."

"None of the people raising their voices now in anger reached into their pockets to assist us in Merion," he said.

The new Barnes is slated to open in 2012 on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, near the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Rodin Museum and the city's science museum.

About 20 protesters outside the groundbreaking held signs reading "Crime Scene Do Not Enter" and "Toxic Area Tax Dump Site."