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Detroit’s Suburbs to City: We Want Your Art But We Won’t Help You

September 5, 2013 by Marion Maneker

The Detroit Institute of Arts

A brief story in the Detroit News acknowledging the return of appraisers from Christie’s to value artwork purchased by the City of Detroit for the Emergency Manager contains an unambiguous quote from nearby Macomb County’s leadership that makes clear what’s at stake. The debate is not, as so many have tried to make it out to be, about  whether art is important to Detroit’s civic culture or its future.

The question is simply who pays for the art and whether the surrounding counties want to have access to Detroit’s art without having to help pay for it. Macomb County’s executive. Mark A. Hackel, went out of his way to reassure his constituents that the additional taxes residents were paying to fund DIA’s operating costs would cease if any of the art the City had bought is sold.

“The intent of Macomb County voters was to support the Detroit Institute of Arts and its assets,” said Macomb assistant county executive Melissa Roy, “not to contribute to the financial solvency of Detroit.”

The cancellation clause was written into the language of the contract between the Macomb County Arts Authority and the DIA after the millage passed. The authority is the liaison between the museum and the county.

After the Oakland County Art Institute Authority unanimously passed a resolution Aug. 20 that would invalidate their millage if any art is sold, Hackel wanted to assure Macomb residents that safeguards were already in place, Roy said.

Christie’s returns to Detroit to plan appraisal of DIA art (Detroit News)

Detroit’s Emergency Manager’s Plan for DIA Explained … 3 Months Ago

August 20, 2013 by Marion Maneker

Detroit's Bill Nowling

A reader pointed to this video from May of 2013 where Bill Nowling references the Emergency Manager’s mysterious plan to sell “covenants” on the art in DIA that would allow the art to stay in place while earning the City money. Combined with Nowling’s hints that Christie’s is working on a plan that will allow the DIA’s art to earn money without being sold, there may be more twists coming in this tale.

Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr wants appraisal of collection at Detroit Institute of Arts

The Ramifications of Detroit’s Art Appraisal

August 19, 2013 by Marion Maneker

The Detroit Institute of Arts

The Detroit Free Press has a story about the appraisal of the Detroit Institute of Arts holdings that raises some chilling and provocative thoughts. Few museums have the historical anomaly that makes the DIA a role in Detroit’s bankruptcy. But the danger of the appraisal now taking place—Christie’s will start with 300 works on view and then move to storage to value works thought to be worth more than $50k and finally on to the rest of what is estimated to be 3,500 works—is that it will reveal a much greater value than the $2.5bn bandied about recently.

How high could the value go? One art advisor suggests into the 11 figures. And the consequences are that other institutions will be forced to reckon with the notional value of their holdings:

“This is like the weighing of souls,” said Maxwell Anderson, director of the Dallas Museum of Art. “This is biblical stuff, not the approximations that insurance companies look for. It’s extremely problematic for all museums, because it alters the public’s perception of artworks from being ciphers of public heritage of transcendent value, to objects for sale to pay other people’s debts.”

Christie’s appraisal will reveal value of Detroit Institute of Arts’ collection (Detroit Free Press)

Why Detroit’s Art Is Like the Barnes Foundation

August 12, 2013 by Marion Maneker

Detail of Vincent van Gogh Self Portrait at DIA

The swirl of overheated opinion surrounding the valuation of Detroit’s art as an asset continues further obscuring the real dynamics of what’s going on Michigan’s most beleaguered town. The problem lies with those who think Detroit’s predicament is universal and feel they’re staging a battle on the ramparts against philistinism. If you allow Detroit to appraise its art, the thinking seems to go, you’re simultaneously devaluing the importance of art and culture and opening the door to further kleptocratic appropriations from the “public trust.”

The assumption is that anyone who entertains recognizing the value of Detroit’s art is anti-art which is why there’s been such mean-spirited denunciation of the New Yorker’s Peter Schjeldahl. (For a more balanced look at the issue, read the various shades of opinion elicited by the New York Times this weekend.) Alicia Eler provides on Hyperallergic the best example of this position:Continue Reading

Bankruptcy Consultant Suggests Detroit Lease Its Art

August 7, 2013 by Marion Maneker

Now This News on Detroit Institute of Arts

Mark Guarino pokes around the Detroit bankruptcy issue and finds some interesting comments on the question of selling Detroit’s art to reduce the city’s debt. Kevyn Orr, the Emergency Manager of the city, has been evaluating a number of schemes from parking meters to selling abandoned land that might generate cash for the city.

Although Christie’s has been hired to perform an appraisal, there’s no indication the art is being used as anything more than an eye-catching bargaining chip. Then, again, maybe that’s just because no one’s letting their imaginations run wild.

Orr could potentially lease the artwork as collateral to raise money for a loan, says Dennis Enright, a national expert in privatization of government assets with NW Financial in Hoboken, N.J.

“You could create a revenue stream around it. It’s definitely not a normal governmental world activity, but certainly private collectors use their art as collateral and bet it against for their own private interests,” Mr. Enright said.

Detroit bankruptcy: Will city’s storied art collection be sold? (MinnPost)

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