My WSJ Article Online: “The Walton Effect”

Here it is art-lings: The Walton Effect: Art World Is Roiled By Wal-Mart Heiress, to be published on the “Leisure & Arts” page of tomorrow’s Wall Street Journal, but online tonight.
As you will see, the subject of the article herself declined (through her middlemen) to talk to me. I think that was probably an unwise strategy, because my sense from those who have met her is that she conveys a sincere, serious interest in art and in becoming a member-in-good-standing of the museum community. Had she spoken to me, I would have been able to appreciate that and would have allowed her to express her side of the story, through direct quotation.
I’ll share with you what I did learn about Walton in a long, illuminating phone conversation with Ellen Agnew, the former associate director of the Maier Museum, who had guided the Wal-Mart heiress on her May 9 tour of that collection. (Agnew resigned less than three months later, in protest against the deaccession plans.)
Agnew told me that Walton had not indicated any desire to acquire during the visit. She had, instead, expressed great interest in the Maier’s educational programs. “I truly think she understood and appreciated the history of our museum,” Agnew told me. It seemed clear that the two felt genuine rapport.
That said, Agnew is vehemently opposed to the plan to sell four Maier works at Christie’s next month—an auction in which it appears that Walton may well participate, if the comments quoted in my WSJ article by her acquisitions advisor, John Wilmerding, are any indication.
“It seems to me,” Agnew said, “that as collections of art become more valuable, they become more vulnerable.” Sales of a few works, she asserted, would “open the door. Soon you will sell another 20 or 30 percent of the collection because you need more money, and then it’s gone.”
More on all this later.