Take Me to Another Place, Take Me to Another Land

Jonathan Marx reports in The Dickson Herald that Alice Walton "has offered to purchase a 50-percent share in Fisk University's Alfred Stieglitz Collection."

That introduces a fourth party to a table where negotiations are already in play. Previously, Fisk University earned opprobrium from both the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum and Tennessee Attorney General Robert Cooper for rushing to deaccession works from the Stieglitz collection, which contains 101 paintings and photographs. The two most notable (and valuable) works in the collection are O'Keefe's Radiator Building—Night, New York (1927) and Marsden Hartley's Painting No. 3 (1913). Time's Richard Lacayo surveys the controversy:

In 2005 the school's president, Hazel O'Leary, came up with an idea that could not only pay to renovate the frayed campus gallery where the Stieglitz Collection has languished but also pump millions of dollars into Fisk's general budget. Why not sell off just a bit of that famous art? But when the school moved to bring Radiator Building to market, it triggered what became a lawsuit by the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, N.M., which moved to block the sale on the grounds that it violated the terms of the painter's bequest. In February the museum offered Fisk a deal. It could sell Radiator Building, but only to the museum, and for $7 million, a price much below what it would go for in the current art market. If Fisk said yes, the museum promised not to block the sale of another painting from the collection, a Marsden Hartley, on the open market. Fisk said yes.

That was where things stood until April 5, when Tennessee attorney general Robert Cooper, whose office has the power to approve or disapprove charitable arrangements, rejected the arranged sale because of the difference between $7 million and what Fisk could get on the open market. Now lawyers for both sides plan to sit down in a judge's chambers to see if a new deal can be worked out.

That hearing is planned for September 6, and the parties will determine whether the university can move forward with the settlement agreement that is already in play (i.e., the deal between the O'Keeffe estate and Fisk). If the court rejects the O'Keeffe Museum settlement, Fisk University officials may then consider Walton's offer.

Given the chance, should they? Walton's $30-million offer for the collection is always-low-prices territory—though the institutions would be going halfsies. I have criticized repeatedly Walton's collecting practices: Crystal Bridges is bolstered by an unfair, sweetheart sales-tax exemption from the state of Arkansas that applies only to Crystal Bridges acquisitions. When the Crystal Bridges collection is finally realized, it will tell the story of bent or broken bequests and money always trumping art's best interest. Given the history, I am not moved by Walton's plea to donor intent. An excerpt from her letter published by The Tennessean:

We believe there is a creative way to honor Ms. O'Keeffe's desire to keep the collection intact and on permanent public display both in Nashville and at Crystal Bridges; and to provide significant financial support to one of the nation's most historic and important institutions of higher learning.

That was not a sentiment she harbored, apparently, when she made offers to buy and remove Philly-unique Eakins paintings from the city's financially strapped art institutions.

That said, Fisk doesn't have many great alternatives. I agree with Tyler Green: The best thing for the Stieglitz Collection would be a long-term loan to the Frist, where the collection has been stored since 2005 anyway. That's a decision in the best interest of the art, the academy, and the community—but it's not in Fisk's best financial interest. The arrangement that the Fisk is currently hashing out in court would split the collection, with the O'Keeffe going to the estate (for cheap), the Hartley going to market (perhaps to Walton?), and the other 99 works staying at Fisk (for now?). On the face of it, Walton's deal seems like the better offer.

As Lee Rosenbaum noted back in April, the state of Tennessee is the only institution that seems to have the public's best interest at heart. It is discouraging that the Fisk has tried to part with its best bequests at bargain-basement prices. In this case, when the community did not rally to preserve these works for Tennessee, Tennessee has at least argued that the community shouldn't get stiffed on the deal.

UPDATE: Lee Rosenbaum: "I am not one of those who have criticized Alice Walton for buying important works from the collections of cultural institutions. [ . . . ] But now, Alice has exceeded the limits of my tolerance."

Posted by Kriston at August 29, 2007 10:18 AM