The Tennessee Court of Appeals on Tuesday ordered a Nashville trial judge to give Fisk University the chance to prove it meets the legal requirements to modify the conditions of a deceased donor’s gift of art and, if satisfied, fashion an order that would allow Fisk to sell part interest in the world famous collection it has controlled more than half a century.

The ruling left Fisk far short of a clear path to victory but was still the first favorable ruling for the school by the Tennessee courts since the fall of 2005 when the small, liberal arts school began a costly legal battle to establish unencumbered control of the 101 piece Alfred Stieglitz Collection so it could then sell all or parts of it to raise funds. The collection was donated to the historically Black school in several parts in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s by the late artist Georgia O’Keeffe, widow of photographer Alfred Stieglitz.

To Fisk’s delight, the appeals court removed, for the moment, one major thorn in Fisk’s side: the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. The appeals court ruled the Santa Fe-based museum had no legal standing to challenge any of Fisk’s efforts and that the trial judge erred in granting the museum legal standing and allowing it to participate in any part of what had become a three-way battle between Fisk, the O’Keeffe Museum and the State of Tennessee, acting as public advocate for the interest of donors and the public.

The museum, which inherited O’Keeffe’s estate from a foundation created to handle O’Keeffe’s affairs after her death, had mounted a vigorous challenge to Fisk, arguing that nothing in the collection could be sold unless it was back to the museum as successor representative of O’Keeffe.

The court also found, in reversing the trial court, that contrary to common belief and the finding of the trial court, there was no evidence in the record of correspondence between O’Keeffe and the school or anywhere else indicating O’Keeffe’s specific intent that the collection was to be housed and shown only at Fisk.