Breaking News on Fisk’s O’Keeffe: AG Rejects Sale to O’Keeffe Museum

Finally, a State Attorney General with teeth:
Tennessee Attorney General Bob Cooper today announced that he had rejected the proposed settlement whereby Fisk University would sell its “Radiator Building” to the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum for $7 million. In return for being allowed to purchase the painting at what the AG termed a “bargain-basement price,” the O’Keeffe Museum had agreed that it would not intervene in Fisk’s proposed sale of Marsden Hartley‘s “Painting Number 3.”
The paintings are from the Stieglitz Collection, donated by O’Keeffe to the university in 1949. The O’Keeffe Museum represents the artist’s estate.
In a letter today to attorneys representing Fisk and the O’Keeffe Museum, the AG’s office stated:
The $7 million purchase price offered by the museum is simply too deep a discount from the apparent market value for this Office to approve….[Because] the market value of both paintings likely is significantly greater than originally contemplated by Fisk,…[the university] may not need to sell both paintings in order to meet its financial needs.
Maybe they should just rededicate themselves to fundraising the old-fashioned way.
The AG also noted that the loss of the paintings would “detract from the rich cultural environment of this community” and added that it “does not appear that, in the short term, the situation is so serious as to require Fisk to accept the discounted $7 million offer.”
This just in—Fisk has released the following statement:
Fisk has no further legal obligation to pursue the existing settlement. Fisk now has the flexibility to pursue other plans and alternatives that might become available to alleviate its long-term financial picture. In [Attorney] General Cooper’s letter, he indicated that he might approve a proposal for Fisk to sell the Hartley painting and retain the O’Keeffe painting. Such an alternative would only be possible in the near future if the O’Keeffe Museum would consider a settlement of the lawsuit on that basis. Fisk is hopeful that the Museum will consider other settlement arrangements for the litigation and looks forward to the opportunity to have further discussions with the Museum.
Fisk has several viable options for handling its short-term financial situation, but it still must sell one or both or the paintings to stabilize its long term financial condition.
In the event of stalement instead of settlement, Davidson County Chancery Court has set a trial date for July 18.
While we await further developments, here are the actual financial offers (as reported to the Attorney General) that Fisk received from dealers, auction houses and collectors salivating over this iconic painting. I promise you that this makes for some very tasty reading.