Fisk University’s proposed sale of a priceless Georgia O’Keeffe painting was blocked Thursday by the Tennessee Attorney General, who said the sale would be “an artistic and financial loss for Fisk and would detract from the rich cultural environment of this community.”
Attorney General Robert E. Cooper Jr. blocked a deal in which Fisk would get $7 million from the Georgia O’Keeffe museum for a prized O’Keeffe painting that could fetch three times that amount on the open market. The sale would then free the school to sell other works it had been given by the late O’Keeffe.
“It seems more appropriate to seek greater resolution of the legal issues from the court and to determine the degree of flexibility that Fisk can exercise in its stewardship of the Stieglitz Collection than to approve a one-sided settlement,” Cooper wrote in a three-page letter to lawyers for Fisk and the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum.
O'Keeffe Museum President Saul Cohen said "no comment at this time," when asked for a response to the decision. Cohen had been confident the settlement would prevail.
Fisk University President Hazel O'Leary said in a prepared statement the school "will intensify our preparation for trial." In a separate statement, Fisk insisted "it must still sell one or both of the paintings to stabilize its long term financial condition."
A July 18 hearing in the Chancery Court of Nashville has been set to hear a request from Fisk for a declaratory judgment that Fisk is the sole owner of the Stieglitz Collection. The O’Keeffe painting is the most valuable of the 101 pieces in the collection.
The O’Keeffe Museum has challenged Fisk’s claims in court, asserting that the school is barred from selling any parts of the collection by covenants agreed to in the 1940s, when the artist donated the collection to the school.
The museum agreed this winter to drop its challenge and free Fisk to sell any part of the collection it wanted, except the O’Keeffe painting. In exchange for dropping its legal challenge and giving Fisk $7 million over time, the museum would get that painting — “Radiator Building – Night, New York.”
