Update: Tuesday, 5:55 a.m. -- The Detroit News reports that the city will pay $200,000 for the appraisal work.
Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr has hired the New York-based Christie's auction house to appraise the contents of the Detroit institute of Arts as part of a widespread appraisal of city assets.
The issue of Detroit's priceless artworks has been a hot one for weeks, since Orr mentioned the DIA contents have to be considered a city asset in bankruptcy proceedings, just like street lights, polar bears at the zoo and the water department.
In a statement, Orr said:
“The city must know the current value of all its assets, including the city-owned collection at the DIA. There has never been, nor is there now, any plan to sell art. This valuation, as well as the valuation of other city assets, is an integral part of the restructuring process. It is a step the city must take to reach resolutions with its creditors and secure a viable, strong future for Detroit and its residents."
He also said the city will have experts determine the value of such property as the city's share of the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, City Airport, parking garages, parking meters and real estate.
New: Christie's released a statement later Monday:
“We confirm that Christie’s Appraisals Inc. was asked and has entered into an agreement to appraise a portion of the city-owned collection at the Detroit Institute of Art. In addition, we will also assist and advise on how to realize value for the city while leaving the art in the city’s ownership.”
The statement also said the auction house understands “that a valuation of all the city’s assets (extending well beyond the art) is one of many steps that will be necessary for the legal system to reach a conclusion about the best long-term solution for the citizens of Detroit.
“At Christie’s, we are passionate about art and understand the importance of the contribution that institutions such as the Detroit Institute of Arts offer to the community and the world at large. We are proud of our long history of support to museums, including the DIA. We want to continue to focus our efforts on being a positive force in both the interests of the City of Detroit and its arts community, including working with our fellow arts professionals at the DIA and with the city to find alternatives to selling that would still provide the City with needed revenue.”
New: Annemarie Erickson, DIA executive vice president, told Mark Stryker of the Free Press: “We are disappointed that Christie’s is taking this action, which could be contrary to the health of this museum.”
New: The official statement from the DIA:
"The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) has learned that Christie’s, at the request of the Emergency Manager, plans to proceed with a valuation of the DIA collection, and we will be cooperating completely in that process. However, we continue to believe there is no reason to value the collection as the Attorney General has made clear that the art is held in charitable trust and cannot be sold as part of a bankruptcy proceeding. We applaud the EM's focus on rebuilding the City, but would point out that he undercuts that core goal by jeopardizing Detroit's most important cultural institution.
"In addition, recent moves in Oakland and Macomb counties to invalidate the tri-county millage if art is sold virtually ensure that any forced sale of art would precipitate the rapid demise of the DIA. Removing $23 million in annual operating funds – nearly 75% of the museum’s operating budget – and violating the trust of donors and supporters would cripple the museum, putting an additional financial burden on our already struggling city. The DIA has long been doing business without City of Detroit operating support; any move that compromises its financial stability will endanger the museum and further challenge the City’s future."
Orr’s statement said the decision to bring in Christie’s came at the request of creditors. He said the auction house will also advise the city on “non-sale alternatives” for realizing value from the collection.
Just the idea that Detroit's art could be sold touched off a blizzard of commentary from around the world. In one example, Peter Schjeldahl, the longtime art critic for the New Yorker, wrote that the art should be sold to ease Detroit's financial crisis. Not too long after that, he issued an emotional mea culpa, saying, "I retract my hasty opinion for two specific reasons, and because I have a sounder grasp of the issues involved."
Schjedahl continued:
"First, the facts: I am now persuaded that a sale of the D.I.A.’s art, besides making merely a dent in Detroit’s debt,
could not conceivably bring dollar-for-dollar relief to the city’s pensioners. Further, the value of the works would stagger even today’s inflated market. Certainly, no museum could afford them. They would pass into private hands at relatively fire-sale prices.
"Second, a heartfelt feeling tripped me into being heartless. A friend writes to me—“perhaps sentimentally,” but with justice—“I can’t help but feel the anger of the grandmother, the artist, the Detroit teenager just discovering art—the regular or semi-regular museum-goer who has four or five favorite paintings and is on the cusp of discovering more, who lives in Detroit (by choice or not) and now must watch them sell those three or four works off, and everything else.”
Photos of DIA Art:
Top: "The Wedding Dance," by Pieter Bruegel the Elder.
Left: "Queen Philippa Interceding for the Lives of the Burghers of Calais," by Benjamin West.
Left, lower: Head of Emperor Augustus, 1st Century A.D.
Last photo on left (cracked egg): Untitled, by Karen Kneffel, 2004.
Right: "Violinist and the Young Woman," by Edgar Degas
