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Oct 18 2007 3:26PM EDT

The O'Keeffe Crusade

A month ago, it looked like the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum had extricated itself from Fisk University's attempts to sell pieces from its Alfred Stieglitz Collection, donated to the school by Georgia O'Keeffe, whose estate the museum now represents. A judge had rejected a settlement proposed by the museum, located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the university, in Nashville, Tennessee, and the museum had subsequently dropped a lawsuit against Fisk that sought to return the collection to Santa Fe.

But on Monday, the O'Keeffe Museum asked a judge to deny a partnership suggested by the university and Alice Walton's Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas that would see the Wal-Mart heiress' burgeoning mecca of art in the South taking a 50 percent stake in the Stieglitz Collection for $30 million.

Here's what I think:

Judge Ellen Hobbs Lyle shot down the Fisk-O'Keeffe proposal because she thought Crystal Bridges had set forth a better deal. There do not appear to be any other offers waiting in the wings. What sort of straws are the O'Keeffe Museum grasping at?

If we do entertain the possibility that the Crystal Bridges proposal is denied, there seem to be only two outcomes, neither of which is desirable:

If the O'Keeffe Museum subsequently convinces a judge to allow the collection to return to Santa Fe, it would be violating the very principle on which it has made its case — that Georgia O'Keeffe meant for the collection to be an educational resource at Fisk University.

If it's decided that Fisk has to keep the collection in tact and at the university, the school may lose its accreditation, which means that the whole reason for having the collection there is a moot point.

Compromise is the name of the game here.


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