Dia director Jeffrey Weiss on the Dia Chelsea sale

While in Miami last week I told you that Dia had sold its Chelsea exhibition space for $38.55 million. This afternoon I spoke with Dia Art Foundation director Jeffrey Weiss about the sale. (And because the NYT has apparently decided that a story isn't a story once it's on MAN, here's your only chance to hear about it.)

Weiss emphasized that the sale does not mean Dia is about to re-open anywhere in New York and that it does not mean that Dia has 'finalist' sites that it is considering as a permanent home. "The two things, funnily enough, are unrelated," he told me. "The sale is something we needed to do because we knew we were going to move. On the other hand the move itself is still unfolding... This money will be for the most part be invested, and from the investment we will draw money for largely for operating budget and related things."

Weiss said that the sale is also unrelated to a $1.1 million fundraising effort that would enable Dia to purchase a permanent conservation easement on 6,000 acres of ranchland adjacent to The Lightning Field, the Walter de Maria installation outside Quemado, New Mexico. The state of New Mexico has kicked in $500,000 and Dia is working to raise the remaining money by May, 2008.

"It's a separate thing," Weiss said. "We've got plenty of needs. The Lightning Field effort is very specific and the places we're looking for help are relevant to that project in a way that they wouldn't be for other things. [For example, last month Dia sent out a fundraising letter to anyone who has spent a night at the Field. -- Ed.] It still feels right to us to be fundraising for that separately and to not fall back on existing resources."

Along those lines, none of the money will be used to support Michael Heizer's City or James Turrell's Roden Crater. "We are currently not supporting City or Roden per se," Weiss said. "We're lending administrative support for now. When we can, hopefully that will change in the future."

Finally, I asked Weiss what would happen to the Jorge Pardo installation that has been in Dia's lobby since it was installed for a 2003 show. "The Pardo was always a temporary installation and actually has been maintained in the building longer than originally planned," Weiss said. "Jorge knows that the building was for sale and he knows that we sold it, but the installation was never intended for preservation. It was always understood to be temporary. So now the new owner could choose to preserve it if they like, but it doesn't belong to us anymore."

(I still think the Pardo would look great at LACMA, but that's another story entirely...)