Thursday, July 16, 2009
Breaking News / Education / Silverman Fisk May Still Get to Proceed With Controversial Stieglitz Art Collection Sale
Posted by Jack Silverman on Thu, Jul 16, 2009 at 5:09 AM
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In a case that seems to have dragged on forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever, Fisk University may finally get to sell a 50 percent interest in its renowned Alfred Stieglitz Collection to Wal-Mart heiress Alice L. Walton's Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. From a story posted last night on the New York Times website:
The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum cannot try to block the sale of an art collection donated by O'Keeffe to Fisk University in Nashville 50 years ago, a Tennessee appeals court ruled Wednesday.... The university, which has longstanding financial difficulties, has arranged to share ownership of the collection with the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, which is preparing to open in Bentonville, Ark., and was founded by Alice L. Walton, an heiress to the Wal-Mart fortune. Crystal Bridges will pay $30 million, which O'Keeffe Museum officials have said is a bargain price, and the collection will alternate locations every two years. Fisk must still win permission in a lower court to sell an interest in the collection, a violation of the terms of the original gift. The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum had argued that it should take possession of the entire collection if Fisk violates any of those terms, but offered to drop its opposition if it could buy "Radiator Building -- Night, New York," a key O'Keeffe work in the collection. Saul Cohen, the president of the O'Keeffe Museum, said Wednesday he could not comment because he had not yet had time to study the court ruling.Considering that the two most valuable paintings in the collection (the "Radiator" painting and Marsden Hartley's "Painting No. 3") are worth anywhere from $20 million to $30 million according to various estimates, and that the other 99 pieces include works by Picasso, Cézanne, Toulouse-Lautrec and Diego Rivera to name a few, it would seem the O'Keeffe Museum is right--Walton would be getting a bargain. But then again, the Wal-Mart heiress, whose net worth is estimated at $17.6 billion, knows a thing or two about buying in volume at rock-bottom prices. At least these artworks weren't made in a Chinese sweatshop (that we know of, anyway). But if you're wandering through your neighborhood Supercenter and hear, "50 percent off Renoir on Aisle 3," it's cause for serious concern.
