Likely UIMA-DMAC Pollock loan exposes conflict-of-interest of Iowa regent pushing forced deaccessioning

Only on MAN, updated below: The University of Iowa Museum of Art's 1943 Jackson Pollock, Mural, will likely go on view at the Des Moines Art Center later this year or in the first days of 2009, a source told MAN. [See update below.] With UIMA closed because of flood damage, the museum is planning on loaning masterworks from its collections to museums throughout Iowa. UIMA apparently hopes that the loans would not only share the paintings with Iowans, but would remind Iowans how great the museum's collection is, leading to greater public support in its battle with UI regents. (Yesterday UIMA interim director Pam White told MAN that she is opposed to any potential forced deaccessioning of Mural.)

UIMA appears to be interested in showing off Mural to Iowa's largest city, especially while the Iowa legislature is in session. The 2009 Iowa legislative session begins on January 12. Having Iowa's greatest cultural treasure on view in the state's capital would provide UIMA with the opportunity to make its case directly to legislators with its star witness present.

However, a UIMA-DMAC loan would raise questions about the motivations of University of Iowa regent Michael Gartner, who first called for the university to explore a forced deaccessioning of the UIMA Pollock. [Michael Gartner is a former president of NBC News and in 1997 he won a Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing at the Ames (Iowa) Daily Tribune. Today he is an Iowa businessman and newspaper co-owner. More here.] According to the Des Moines Register, Gartner called for exploring the sale of the UIMA Pollock to another institution, specifically an institution that might allow UIMA to show the painting occasionally. Des Moines is 115 miles from UIMA in Iowa City, close enough to enable the unusual kind of sharing arrangement Gartner appeared to have in mind.

Gartner's wife Barbara sits on the board of the Des Moines Art Center. Gartner's position at with the university's board of regents and his wife's at DMAC raises serious questions about whether Gartner is trying to leverage a forced deaccessioning of the UIMA Pollock to a museum in which his wife is active.

UPDATE, to reflect ongoing developments: Des Moines Art Center director Jeff Fleming says that there is no loan agreement between UIMA and DMAC, and that he's not certain his museum could afford the insurance on the painting. Fleming said that there have been conversations about borrowing the work, but not directly between him and UIMA. More from Fleming on the UIMA Pollock on MAN tomorrow.