Fisk - O'Keefe Ruling

If you are in the mood for some "light" reading, click HERE to read and/or review the 19 page ruling from the Tennessee courts on the Fisk University/Georgia O'Keefe Foundation lawsuit. As you may recall, I posted last week, and Fisk, with some restrictions is allowed to sell or share the collection, or at least the O'Keefe Foundation can not block a sale or potential sharing agreement. I would assume there are still deaccessioning issues to consider.

I'll start you out At issue in this appeal are the respective rights of three parties concerning charitable gifts of 101 pieces of art given, subject to conditions, to Fisk University in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The
collection has an estimated present value in excess of $60 million. Four of the pieces, including the painting Radiator Building - Night, New York, were the property of Georgia O’Keeffe and given to the University by Ms. O’Keeffe. The other ninety-seven pieces were part of a much larger collection formerly owned by Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O’Keeffe’s late husband. The ninety-seven pieces were gifted to the University by Ms. O’Keeffe as executrix of the estate and/or as the owner of a life estate in the ninety-seven pieces. All 101 pieces were charitable, conditional gifts that were subject to several restrictions, two of which are at issue here; the pieces could not be sold and the various pieces of art were to be displayed at Fisk University as one collection. These proceedings began when Fisk University filed an ex parte declaratory judgment action seeking permission to sell two valuable pieces of the collection because it could no longer afford to maintain the collection pursuant to the conditions imposed 50 years earlier.