The deaccessioning wars continue to bubble along at a constant pace, including some old and unfinished business. The Georgia O’Keefe Estate sued Fiske University over a collection of 101 works donated by the artist as the The Stieglitz Collection. According to the New York Times‘s Shiela Dewan, The Tennessee appeals court decided the estate was not in a position to block Fiske from entering in to an arrangement to monetize the collection:
The Stieglitz Art Collection, 101 pieces of a larger group of works amassed by O’Keeffe’s husband, the photographer Alfred Stieglitz, includes works by the couple, other American artists like Marsden Hartley and pieces by Picasso, Cezanne and Renoir.
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.
Court Removes an Obstacle for Fiske University in Struggle Over Stieglitz Art Sale (New York Times)
