Randolph Update

Christa Desrets has the latest on the Randolph College deaccessioning lawsuit in the Lynchburg News & Advance. At a hearing Tuesday the court "agreed to narrowing the scope of the case [to just the four paintings at issue], and said the trial could be delayed for up to six weeks from its original starting date on April 29." Desrets describes this as meeting the parties' "requests in the middle," but it sounds like it may have been a significant victory for the college to me. Remember, an important part of the plaintiffs' strategy has been to link the four paintings in the current suit (which are not subject to any explicit restrictions on sale) to the rest of the collection, much of which is (at least arguably) restricted. Severing that link (if that is in fact the consequence of Tuesday's ruling) would seem to be a serious blow to the plaintiffs' case.