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Out of the Gate   Bringing Home the Bacon
Sep 11 2007 10:44AM EDT

Wal-Mart Heiress Inches Closer to Stieglitz Collection

Alice Walton's got her eye on the prize.

Yesterday, Davidson County Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle killed the settlement proposed by Fisk University in Nashville and the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe to resolve a dispute between the two about the fate of the Alfred Stieglitz Collection.

The O'Keeffe Museum, which represents the artist's estate, cried foul when Fisk wanted to sell works from the Stieglitz collection, claiming that O'Keeffe donated the pieces acquired by her husband for teaching purposes and intended for it to stay together. Under the settlement, Fisk's Radiator Building — Night, New York, a painting by O'Keeffe in the collection, would've gone to the museum in exchange for $7.5 million, and the university would have also been able to sell a Marsden Hartley piece from the collection.

Lyle said that Alice Walton's rival bid is a better deal for both the university and the citizens of Nashville. The Wal-Mart heiress' Crystal Bridges Museum of Art in Bentonville, Arkansas would acquire a 50 percent share of the collection for $30 million, with the works splitting their time evenly between Nashville and Bentonville. Walton's been on an acquisitions tour of the U.S., snatching up prime pieces for Crystal Bridges and sparking more than a little controversy. In this case, though, it looks like Walton might come out looking like a savior instead of a pillager.

Check out culture blogger Lee Rosenbaum's take here.

Now that Chancellor Lyle has sided with Tennessee Attorney General Robert Cooper, the Fisk-O'Keeffe case will go to trial. That's slated to start next week.


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