Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Cohen Speaks

Also from the Apr. 17 ARTnewsletter, and also not online, an interesting quote from Saul Cohen, president of the O'Keeffe Museum, that I don't think I've seen anywhere else, in reaction to the Tennessee Attorney General's cancellation of the Fisk University settlement on the grounds that the $7 million price the university and the museum agreed to was too low:

"We knew that an auction house could do better, and we knew that Fisk had received offers for more. But, the fact is, if Fisk breached the condition of the bequest Georgia O'Keeffe made, it was obligated to just give the work to the museum, which would have been much worse for them than selling it for $7 million. The $7 million would help Fisk to carry on, and it would give the painting to a museum, where it likely belongs."

I made a similar point here.