The Barnes Foundation is no longer the greatest art collection you'll never see. Art aficionados and academics might never stop debating whether Dr. Albert C. Barnes' priceless cache of masterpieces should have been uprooted from its original home in suburban Merion and transplanted to a modernist box on the museum-studded Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
But like it or not, the Barnes' long, strange trip has reached its final destination. It officially opens to the public Saturday.
"We are beginning a chapter of history at the Barnes where the 'plain people' that Dr. Barnes so often talked about will at long last feel these masterpieces are as readily available for their enjoyment and study as anyone in this room," said Judge Jacqueline Allen, the foundation's secretary, at a preview of the collection this week.
The Barnes expects 250,000 visitors to see the collection during its first year in Philadelphia, roughly four times more than in its hallowed former home that required months-in-advance reservations. Visitors also will see it better, with discreet lighting to reduce the glare that was a perennial problem in Merion. [more...]
See the documentary, "The Art of the Steal," on the great Barnes collection - known as "the greatest theft of art since the Second World War."
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