A college's art treasure dilemma: to sell or to hold?

An O'Keeffe painting is at the center of a storm over Fisk University's plan to raise funds by selling it.

from the August 28, 2007 edition

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In response to a June 12 chancery court ruling against Fisk's plan, the O'Keeffe museum and Fisk have offered a compromise: Not quite a sale, the deal would still give Fisk $7.5 million but would allow it to display "Radiator Building" for part of each year.

Cooper concedes it's a complex issue. "In weighing [the sale] against the ... importance of Fisk University to Nashville and the nation, this office must conclude that the preservation of the collection is not worth the risk of financially crippling one of the preeminent historically black colleges," wrote Cooper in a February letter.

In an interview last week, he added: "It's still our hope that there will be alternatives that will leave the collection intact."

The trend of "deaccessioning" art treasures is growing on pace with auction house inflation.

Last year, an uproar ensued in Philadelphia over a decision by Thomas Jefferson University to sell a $68 million Thomas Eakins painting. The painting ultimately stayed in Philly, but to bankroll the sale, one of the local buying institutions had to sell a painting – another Eakins.

An attempt to sell part of the Maier Museum of Art collection at Randolph College in Lynchburg, Va., also outraged many alumni. While Fisk is the only widely publicized example of a major art sale from a black college, one school, Tougaloo College in Jackson, Miss., has sold a different asset – a sizable plot of its campus – to raise funds.

Vibrant, intact art collections are one way for colleges to promote the connection between the past and the present – something that appeals to many young blacks, says Tina Dunkley, Clark Atlanta University's art director. Once the vault door is open, she says, it's hard to close it again.

"If you're going to liquidate treasures for building endowment ... you'll be tempted to go back to the collection and do it again," she says.

Such moves could scare off future donors, say critics. "It raises a question in the minds of donors: Is that where I want to put my collection, and is it going to be something that is not used the way it was intended?" says Ms. Freeman.

If the Fisk deal gets done, it could illustrate collaborative new ways for schools to receive "fees" for art while still technically keeping their collections intact. It may also open the way for additional deals, as art dealers start rooting through university collections for masterpieces.

The United Negro College Fund has another option: boosting alumni giving. Eight percent of alumni from black schools donate financially, compared with about 30 percent for all schools, says Lomax. UNCF's new "capacity building" grants aim to help black schools do just that. Fisk is applying for a grant.

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