ARGH! "DIA's art collection could face sell-off to satisfy Detroit's creditors"

[IdaBriggs]

"...the scope of that power to sell off city jewels, such as the DIA collection, Belle Isle or the city’s water department..."

http://www.freep.com/article/20130523/NEWS01/305230154

DIA's art collection could face sell-off to satisfy Detroit's creditors

(snip)

Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr is considering whether the multibillion-dollar collection at the Detroit Institute of Arts should be considered city assets that potentially could be sold to cover about $15 billion in debt.

(snip)

Liquidating DIA art to pay down debt likely would be a monstrously complicated, controversial and contentious process never before tested on such as large scale and with no certain outcome. The DIA is unusual among major civic museums in that the city retains ownership of the building and collection while daily operations, including fund-raising, are overseen by a nonprofit institution.

(snip)

As emergency manager, Orr has great latitude in selling city assets to satisfy debt. But the scope of that power to sell off city jewels, such as the DIA collection, Belle Isle or the city’s water department, for example, has yet to be exercised and likely would be tested in court.

(snip)

Museums are not required by federal accounting rules to list their collections as assets. However, at the request of the Free Press, art dealers in New York and metro Detroit reviewed a list of 38 of the greatest masterpieces owned by the museum and estimated a market value of at least $2.5 billion with pieces such as Bruegel’s “The Wedding Dance,” van Gogh’s “Self-Portrait” and Matisse’s “The Window” all carrying estimates of between $100 million and $150 million each.

(snip)

Under normal circumstances, selling art to raise operating funds is strictly forbidden by the ethical codes and governing bodies in the museum world. Museums that run afoul of the rules are ostracized, and the threat of no longer being able to mount traveling exhibitions or borrow works is typically enough to prevent such sales — though the degree to which the DIA’s peer institutions would hold it accountable in the case of a forced sale remains an open question.


(more at link)

[HiPointDem]

1. kr

[CincyDem]

2. I wonder how the donors of that art will feel ?

This could have a "chilling effect" on the way that museums throughout the country acquire art for public purposes.

[IdaBriggs]

5. The article says that some of the donors might have made "qualifications" but...

I am not sure anyone put in a *and you can't sell it to pay off city debts* note.

This is pure crazy.

[CincyDem]

10. Donor qualifications

Most of those have to do with how a piece can be exhibited, how it can be loaned out, what the plaque has to say when it travels. Sometimes there are constraints of what a piece can be exhibited with (for example - in a traveling show this Van Gogh must be the only Van Gogh, or oppositely, this can only travel for a group showing of other Van Gogh's).

It could be interesting as many donations have some kind of constraint that the piece can not be sold to pay operating expenses of the museum. Some of the top top top tier stuff at the big city museums also include a "can't be sold for any reason" constraint but most museums resist that because they want to sell stuff to "trade up".

I'm sure there's some loophole in here that will let these carpetbaggers loot DIA the same way the museums in Baghdad were pillaged when Saddam fell. What a loss.

[CTyankee]

23. Sad thing. But looted art is as old as civilization.

You can still see the Elgin marbles in the British Museum and the Louvre hasn't given back any of its stuff either. I was mad at Yale for years about the Machu Picchu antiquities that Hiram Bingham stole, but Yale got so much grief from its peers in the Ivy League they had no choice but to return them.

But to watch this happen before our very eyes is horrendous, none the less. I am appalled...

[Cal Carpenter]

3. Fucking vultures

skimming whatever value they can find in Detroit.

This emergency manager crap was gonna turn out this way no matter what, despite the bullshit excuses/defenses the idea got even here on DU (!?WTF?!). They aren't trying to "Save" Detroit, they are trying to get what they can out of it before it's all gone. This is the last phase of 'chew it up and spit it out'.

Fuck Kevyn Orr, Rick Snyder and the capitalist class. Fuck them all.

[AndyA]

4. I'll bet the Emergency Manager just happens to have contacts in the art world

After he finishes raping the people of Detroit, he'll announce a new partnership...a museum. Guess what works of art will be on display in the new museum?

It's happened before. The Pontiac Silverdome cost citizens $55.7 million to build in 1975 (which is about $225 million in 2012 dollars) and the Emergency Manager sold it in 2009 for $583,000--despite objections from the Pontiac City Council, which voted unanimously to not sell. The new buyer paid just 1 percent of its original cost. Screw the citizens. But there's more.

The Emergency Manager later teamed up with the new owner in a private, for profit venture using the Silverdome. Screw the citizens again.

I don't know what the current status of the Silverdome is, I looked at its website and it doesn't appear there's much going on. Last I heard, they were going to try to turn it into a casino, but that doesn't seem to have happened. Can anyone local give us some details?

[DonRedwood]

6. Art is for the rich folks....

It must just be killing them they haven't been able to steal that Van Gogh from the people...now is their chance.

[malthaussen]

7. They have become so blatant...

... ya know, when we advised people to "tell it like it is" back in the old days, we were laboring under the delusion that people were basically good. This rule would appear not to hold with City Managers.

-- Mal

[Octafish]

8. A city manager appointed by the governor who does what the Koch brothers tell him to do.

And you know how the Koch brothers love to support the arts.

[caraher]

9. And the looting continues

Who benefits from these "emergency manager" laws?

Ugh.

[HiPointDem]

22. you have to ask?

[caraher]

24. Rhetorical question

It's especially sad to see this happen to my native city

[HiPointDem]

29. yes, sorry, so was mine.

[duhneece]

11. 'Shock Doctrine' privatization in action

The more devastated our cities, states, park systems, etc., the more we'll see the selling off of 'public' assets...another way to rip off the poor & give to the rich.

[louis-t]

12. Again, this clown said he would not "sell off assets".

I promise you, he will.

[Blue Owl]

13. The billionaire Kochs need a new free space to dump their toxic waste

n/t

[Rex]

14. Detriot is the plutocracy testing grounds.

If the people don't rise up, then the next step is made to see how far they can push their social engineering project.

[blackspade]

15. This shitty law only seems to get worse by the day.

Despicable.

[FreepFryer]

16. The height of stupidity

The DIA's collection is a cultural asset that allows Detroit to continue to earn in other ways, whether ongoing donor contributions or cultural events that contribute to its tourism and distinctiveness.

To even suggest this is more than a mere epitome of short-sighted mismanagement... it's an intentional dismantling of Detroit's ability to earn in the future.

It's cultural assassination wrapped in fiscal excuses.

[woo me with science]

17. We must become the 99 percent.

Talk to everyone you know, across all party lines.

We need to come together to take back our cities, and our country, from looting thieves.

[marions ghost]

18. K&R

[Spitfire of ATJ]

19. The attitude is that Detroit is a slum. What do "those people" know about art?

[Tanuki]

20. Look for Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton to loot it for her art museum in Arkansas,

just as she did the Alfred Stieglitz collection, which had been bequeathed to Fisk University by Georgia O'Keefe.
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/03/legal-battle-over-fisk-university-art-collection-ends/

[LadyHawkAZ]

21. Any bets on how many will wind up in private collections? n/t

[KamaAina]

25. Not gonna happen

The collection is owned by the city but managed by a nonprofit. The city could simply transfer the collection to the nonprofit.

[X_Digger]

26. Correct..

https://www.facebook.com/DetroitInstituteofArts/posts/10151518872640983

[former9thward]

27. The city is under control of the Emergency Manager.

So the city can't transfer anything unless he approves.

[KamaAina]

28. Also complicating matters is the regional tax

Wayne County and two adjacent counties levy a special tax to support DIA. Look for them to haul Orr's ass into court if he tries to sell.

[pa28]

30. The ability of the city to sell is apparently a grey area likely to be decided by a judge.

Instead of making creditors force the issue the emergency manager brought the idea of a liquidation to the table himself. It seems to me bondholders will be in a much better position to legally require a fire sale now.

As I was reading about this today I discovered, much to my surprise, that Detroit has one of the finest collections in the country. This is disgusting.