Judge Rejects Fisk Deal to Sell Georgia O’Keeffe Share
August 21, 2010 by All Art News
Filed under Art Crime & Legal
NASHVILLE (AP).- A Nashville judge has rejected Fisk University’s proposal to sell a joint share in a 101-piece collection donated by late artist Georgia O’Keeffe to an Arkansas museum.
Fisk argued that its precarious financial state prevents the historically black university from maintaining and displaying the collection.
American painter Georgia O'Keeffe, 80, is photographed on April 3, 1968 at an unknown location
Judge Ellen Hobbs Lyle agreed Friday that the cash-strapped school is unable to exhibit the collection.
But Lyle said the Fisk proposal to sell a 50 percent stake in the collection to the Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, Ark., for $30 million does not meet the terms of the donation O’Keeffe made to the school in 1949.
Lyle ordered the state attorney general to offer a “Nashville-based solution” within 20 days.
