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Bringing Home the Bacon   Boltanski at Marian Goodman
Sep 11 2007 5:33PM EDT

In Other Deaccession News...

Speaking of universities that may deaccession artworks in order to stay afloat financially, 11 individuals jointly filed a petition this morning asking a Virginia court to deny Randolph College's request to potentially sell 35 of the pieces in its Maier Museum. These works, bought with the liquidated assets of the college's first art professor, Louise Jordan Smith, are valued at more than $40 million. Randolph has not said that it plans to sell the art, but wants to be given the authority to cash out if it wants to.

In January, the college — which was known as Randolph-Macon Woman's College before it started admitting men this fall — was warned by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, its accreditor, that it was on shaky financial footing. Randolph looked to its trove of Bellows, Hoppers, and O'Keeffes as a potential means of achieving financial solvency.

The petitioners include Smith's heirs, the former heads of the college's Museum Studies program and Maier Museum (both of whom resigned in protest of the possibility of the sale), museum donors, and even students.

They argue that Smith meant for the pieces bought with money from her trust to remain at Randolph in perpetuity; that the college is considering a sale of the art "to try to correct its poor decision making and past financial mismanagement"; and that it can solve its financial problems by better handling its resources and pursuing other fundraising options.

"One of the few things that sets them apart from other colleges is this collection," said Anne Yestremski, executive director of Preserve Educational Choice, Inc., the organization funding the legal work to block any sale of the "Smith Art."

Alice Walton, herself, is said to have taken a look at Randolph's collection at one point.


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