The First Sacrificial Painting from the Maier Museum

Rufino Tamayo, "Trovador," 1945

Above is the first work to be put on the block by the Maier Museum of Randolph College, estimated to bring $2-3 million at Christie's Latin American sale, Nov. 19, for which the auction house has just issued its press release. I will quote from the presale hype, not to promote this deplorable event, but to emphasize the degree of loss to the cultural patrimony of both the school and the general public:

Tamayo's "Trovador" (Troubadour), executed in 1945, is perhaps the least studied of the artist's great paintings. Combining ideal subject matter of the guitarist with the artist's signature brilliant palette and scale, this iconic work is the most important easel painting by Tamayo to come up at auction in more than a decade. "Trovador" has the potential to break the current world auction record for Tamayo, which was set at Christie's in 1993 with the 1955 painting, America (Mural).

It may break not only the auction record but also a few hearts. And if it disappears into a private collection, it will be far less studied than it was at the Lynchburg, VA, educational institution, which formerly used its collection as a teaching tool but now also exploits it as a cash cow.