Latest Developments in Fisk/Walton vs. O'Keeffe Museum Courtroom Wars

In its continuing battle with Fisk University, Nashville, over the fate of its Stieglitz Collection, the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, filed papers in Davidson County Chancery Court on Monday that challenge, largely on procedural grounds, Fisk's latest request for permission to sell a half-share in the 101 works to Alice Walton's Crystal Bridges Museum for $30 million.

Saul Cohen, the O'Keeffe Museum's board president, told me yesterday by phone that his museum's court filing argues that Fisk can't seek this permission in the manner that it has chosen---by amending its previous request for permission to sell one work, O'Keeffe's "Radiator Building," for $7.5 million to the O'Keeffe Museum (which would, in turn, have allowed Fisk to sell a Marsden Hartley on the open market).

That case, he said, has been decided and is finished. (The judge on Sept.10 nixed the Fisk/O'Keeffe Museum agreement.) To get permission to enter into a different agreement, Fisk needs to initiate a new case, rather than trying to amend the old one, the O'Keeffe Museum argues.

Similarly, in papers filed Monday by his office, Tennessee Attorney General Robert Cooper voiced some procedural objections. While not yet giving his opinion of the agreement between Fisk and Crystal Bridges, Cooper argues:

Fisk's proposed amended complaint seeks new relief...which has not been the subject of discovery in this case. The Attorney General believes that discovery should not be limited to financial issues [as Fisk desires], but rather should be open to all issues relevant to the petition for relief..., so that the Attorney General can pursue discovery necessary to comply with his statutory duty to represent the interest of the people of the State of Tennessee in this charitable gift.

The elephant in the courtroom is Cohen's vow to play hardball if the case continues: Rather than allow Crystal Bridges to purchase a half-share in the collection, in violation of O'Keeffe's written instructions prohibiting sales, he told me that the O'Keeffe Museum would argue that it should receive the entire collection. Having been given the remaining assets of the O'Keeffe Foundation, the Santa Fe museum became O'Keeffe's "successor in interest" last year, and would be line to receive the Stieglitz Collection if the conditions of her gift were violated, Cohen asserts.

Meanwhile, as Fisk's court filings show, the university has a miniscule endowment and is teetering on the brink of financial disaster---a much more dire situation than that of Randolph College, which is selling four works from its Maier Museum for financial reasons.