Barnes gets go-ahead to move art

The Barnes Foundation won the latest round in a legal dispute over a plan to move its collection of Impressionist art to Philadelphia, against the wishes of some residents in the museum’s current suburban location.

Judge Stanley Ott of Montgomery County Orphans’ Court said the Friends of the Barnes Foundation lacked legal standing to oppose the relocation of the Barnes Museum from its home in Merion, Pa., where the collection has been since 1925.

Though “the intensity of concern” by the Friends of the Barnes group is “real and commendable,” the organization lacked an “actual interest” in the matter, Ott wrote this week.

“This very clear ruling ends the present distraction, and we are forging ahead with plans for a new building,” Barnes Foundation Executive Director Derek Gillman said.