Tennessee’s Brief Calls Fisk’s Proposed Art Sale to Crystal Bridges “Problematic” UPDATED

Crystal Bridges Museum-in-Progress: The concrete is poured.

Tennessee Attorney General Robert Cooper yesterday filed a brief in the appeals case brought by Fisk University in the Tennessee Court of Appeals. The school is still seeking legal permission to sell a half-share of its Stieglitz Collection to Alice Walton‘s Crystal Bridges Museum, now under construction (above) in Bentonville, Arkansas.

According to Super Cooper:

Fisk’s aggressive claim seeking permission to sell half interest in the collection is…problematic.

What’s more, the AG argued that even if the court agreed that “Fisk’s financial condition rendered compliance with the [Stieglitz Collection] gift’s restrictions impracticable or impossible, the court would still have great discretion over which conditions should be amended to address such findings. Such relief would not necessarily include, and WOULD LIKELY FALL SHORT OF [emphasis added] a sale of the Collection….It is entirely possible that a much less drastic…remedy than selling the collection would satisfy Fisk’s needs, if Fisk is entitled to any…relief at all.”

As I said in my recent post, A Brief that Strains Belief:

Fisk’s attempt to have it both ways…fatally undermines
the credibility of its argument for doing the Walton deal. If Fisk has
now managed to raise the cash needed to maintain the collection over
the short term, it should labor mightily to extend this fundraising
success over the long term, rather than taking the quick but legally
and ethically problematic way out by monetizing the collection.