University of Iowa's Pollock: Possible Source of Flood-Recovery Cash?

Jackson Pollock, "Mural," 1943, University of Iowa Art Museum
It's down-the-slippery-slope time again. Only this time that slope has been slicked by the Iowa floods. Brian Morelli of the Iowa City Press-Citizen reports:
The Iowa state Board of Regents will conduct a study to determine the value of one of University of Iowa's most prized and expensive possessions.Appraising the painting can only mean that the university is thinking of monetizing it, whatever is now being said for public consumption. The Association of Art Museum Directors, the College Art Association and the Association of College & University Museums & Galleries should jump all over this one, as they did (to no avail, alas) in connection with Randolph College's Maier Museum art sales. I'm counting on AAMD's president, Michael Conforti, to make this his first sermon from his new bully pulpit.
Regent Michael Gartner requested the study of Jackson Pollock's "Mural," which is part of the University of Iowa Museum of Art collection [given to it by legendary collector/dealer Peggy Guggenheim]. Gartner said the painting was estimated to be worth more than $150 million several years ago.UI President Sally Mason said UI does not plan to sell the painting....Gartner said he is "not proposing the painting be sold," but that it would be good for the regents and the university to be aware of what options are out there as UI faces major expenses in flood recovery.
The Wall Street Journal ran a piece June 30 on Iowa's Pollock. Pamela White, interim director of the university's disaster-evacuated art museum, then told Michael Judge of the WSJ:
We might be looking at building a new museum to house the collection. But I can assure you, "Mural" will be a part of that collection......or maybe not.
UPDATE: More CultureGrrl coverage of the Iowa brouhaha is here and here.
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LEE ROSENBAUM I'm a veteran cultural journalist with many pieces in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and major art magazines. I have been a cultural contributor on New York Public Radio (WNYC and WQXR) and have provided arts commentary on NPR and public radio stations in Philadelphia and Los Angeles. I am a HuffPost Arts writer. I've been profiled on the PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer's Art Beat and in the Chicago Reader. I've appeared as an art-market commentator on BBC-TV and have published numerous Op-Ed pieces in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times. I am author of The Complete Guide to Collecting Art (Knopf) and have lectured on cultural property issues at the New Acropolis Museum and the University of Pennsylvania, on deaccessioning at at Investigative Reporters and Editors 2011 Annual Meeting, Columbia Law School, the University of Iowa and a conference of the Museum Association of New York, on museum governance and cultural property issues at Seton Hall University, on arts blogging at American University and on Smithsonian exhibition controversies at Rutgers University.
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