Selling an iconic Jackson Pollock painting would discourage future donations to Iowa's public universities and likely lead to a lawsuit, several officials said.
An Iowa House subcommittee this week supported the sale of Pollock's "Mural," which had an estimated value of $150 million in 2008. The painting was donated to the University of Iowa in 1951 by Peggy Guggenheim, an art collector.
Proceeds from the sale would fund thousands of student scholarships.
U of I officials and others, though, oppose the sale.
State Board of Regents President David Miles said the sale could lead to a lawsuit from Guggenheim's family. He said the move would also break the trust of everyone who has contributed to the arts at U of I.
Nationally, lawsuits and resignations have occurred when universities sold all or parts of their collections. A sampling includes:
• Randolph College in Virginia, which proposed selling four paintings in 2007. A group including alumni sued, temporarily halting the sales. One painting was eventually sold for $7.2 million.
• Fisk University in Tennessee, which agreed to sell a 50 percent share of its entire collection in 2007 to a museum in Arkansas. The state attorney general sued to stop the sale. A judge ruled in November that the sale could go forward, but with restrictions.
• Brandeis University in Massachusetts, which decided in 2009 to sell its entire art collection, sparking a lawsuit from members of the museum board. The university's president announced his resignation later that year. The university has since backed off efforts to sell the collection.
A national debate within the arts community is roiling after attempts by institutions to sell all or parts of their collections, said Jeff Fleming, director of the Des Moines Art Center.
"There's a huge legal debate focusing on donor intent," he said. "Any tangible property could be up for sale. It's mind-boggling."
Disregarding donor intent led to a lawsuit and a review of all endowments at Iowa State University nearly a decade ago.
ISU sold a 240-acre farm, valued at $1.2 million, for campus projects. The move came several years after the donor, Marie Powers, gave the land so it could be operated by ISU in the memory of her late husband.
The outcry caused a university review of its donations. The university foundation also started making details of donations public, following an Iowa Supreme Court decision in 2005.
The proposal to sell the Pollock painting is being followed nationally in the nonprofit world, because respecting donors' wishes is "sacrosanct to the business of philanthropy," said Dan Saftig, president of the ISU Foundation.
Ruth Ratliff, vice president of the UNI Foundation in Cedar Falls, said a sale may cause donors to think twice before giving to the university's art gallery.
She said donors could hesitate because when a gift is accepted, "the university is acknowledging that the object itself will be of use to the university. It's more than just the (monetary) value of it."
Selling the painting would also violate a fundamental ethical principle held by museums worldwide, said Dewey Blanton, a spokesman for the American Association of Museums in Washington, D.C.
Those guidelines, included in a written policy at the U of I Museum of Art, stipulate any sale must improve the quality of a collection. Rules also require that proceeds of a sale should not pay for operating costs.
"What art collector is going to give a work to a museum that might be on the block in six months at Christie's auction house?" Blanton said.
Iowa House Speaker Kraig Paulsen on Thursday expressed support for a House bill that would require the painting be sold.
The painting is on display at Davenport's Figge Museum because of flood damage that occurred in 2008 to the university's art museum in Iowa City.
Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, said it's difficult to explain to the public that the U of I must keep a painting that isn't on display at the university and which could provide money to provide scholarships for students "in perpetuity."
He added that he hasn't received any evidence that the painting is critical to students' education.
The proposal would allow the U of I to receive the painting on loan at least once every four years, for three months at a time.
Fleming said moving the painting, which is about 20 feet wide and 8 feet tall, would be expensive and dangerous.
Regent Michael Gartner, a Democrat, said he supports the idea, in part because the painting "is not on the campus, has not been for two years, and is unlikely to be for at least another three years."
Lyndel King, director of Weisman Art Museum at University of Minnesota, said museums need to do a better job of explaining the educational value of art.
Art collections teach students about other cultures, other ways of seeing the world and other ways to think, she said.
"Even more than that, it's the idea of looking at something that maybe you don't get, then figuring it out," she said. "I think there's a great educational value to that experience."
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