Yesterday Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle issued her ruling on the fate of Fisk University’s Alfred Stieglitz Collection of Modern American and European Art. Her decision recalls the “splitting the baby” strategy of the Biblical King Solomon — and predictably satisfies neither Fisk nor Tennessee Attorney General Bob Cooper, the legal combatants in the case.
Lyle gives Fisk permission to sell a half-interest in the collection to the Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas for $30 million. But only $10 million would be available to the university to spend at its discretion. The remaining $20 million “shall be removed from Fisk and set up in an endowment for the Collection,” Lyle writes. The money “shall be placed with a foundation to conserve and manage the funds, and to produce income. Fisk shall have no access to the $20 million or its management.”
The foundation would pay to Fisk the annual income from the endowment — a 5 percent investment return would yield $1 million. But this income could only be used by the university to pay its 50 percent share of the costs to insure, maintain and exhibit the 101 artworks.
This scenario, Lyle says, gives Fisk some cash “to cover its debt to get back on track financially.” But if Fisk can’t reverse its financial fortunes and closes, “there will nevertheless be $20 million endowing and tied to the Collection for a newly court-appointed custodian to use to assure that Nashvillians have access to the Collection.”
The chancellor concludes that this arrangement best approximates artist Georgia O’Keeffe’s intention when she donated the art from the estate of her late husband, Alfred Stieglitz, in 1949. The Tennessee Court of Appeals has already ruled that O’Keeffe’s purpose was “to enable the public — in Nashville and the South — to have the opportunity to study the Collection in order to promote the general study of art.”
Both Fisk and the attorney general reacted negatively to Lyle’s ruling.
In a prepared statement, Fisk President Hazel O’Leary expresses pleasure that the court has approved the sale to Crystal Bridges. As to be expected, however, she’s not at all pleased that Fisk will have access to only $10 million.
The “Court’s decision to restrict $20 million of the funds so that interest from the endowment is used to support the art is excessive,” O’Leary states. The income from the restricted endowment “far exceeds the amount necessary to secure and maintain the Collection.” O’Leary has previously testified that Fisk currently spends approximately $131,000 a year on the Stieglitz Collection. She has also stated that the university needs $150 million to survive and that the school’s annual shortfall averages $2 million.
Cooper’s response expresses no pleasure at all. “We are disappointed with the approval of the Stieglitz Collection’s sale to the Crystal Bridges Museum in Arkansas contrary to the express wishes of the donor,” he says. “The Pearl Creswell Fund is an alternative that would allow the art to be displayed on the Fisk campus full time at no cost to the university.” The attorney general has argued that Fisk has no legal right to sell any interest in the collection due to a “no-sale” condition O’Keeffe imposed at the time of her gift.
Both O’Leary and Cooper say they’ll study Lyle’s 35-page decision further before determining how to proceed. Court of Appeals, anyone?
UPDATE, 6:30 p.m. Nov. 4: Carol Creswell-Betsch, founder of the proposed Pearl Creswell Fund, issued a statement through a representative at McNeely, Pigott & Fox:
“I am extremely disappointed in the court’s decision to allow Fisk University to sell a share of the Stieglitz Collection to Crystal Bridges Museum in Arkansas. With the court judging that only $10 million may be used by Fisk to address its financial issues, this ruling saves neither the art nor the university. Keeping this in mind, I continue to support the creation and contributions to the Pearl Creswell Fund for the Alfred Stieglitz Collection at Fisk University. This fund, available through The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, will allow the art to stay at my alma mater, to pay for the maintenance and display of the collection at no cost to Fisk, and to assure that the art is available for study at Fisk in Nashville for many years to come.”
