DIA Meets Grand Bargain Goal

The NY Times is reporting the Detroit Institute of Arts has obtained t $100 million in pledges, meeting its Grand Bargain goal. As reported by the NY Times, according to the agreement, if the DIA  exceeds its annual $5 million obligation, it will get a present value discount and actually pay less than the Grand Bargain agreed upon amount of $100 million.

The NY Times reports

The Detroit Institute of Arts – whose world-class collection was saved last year in an agreement that kept it intact under Detroit’s federal bankruptcy plan – announced Monday that it had secured enough pledges from donors to meet a $100-million obligation as its part of the agreement, known as the “grand bargain.”

Under terms that allow it and other parties to the grand bargain to earn a discount for making larger payments up front over a period of 20 years, the museum will not end up having to pay the entire $100 million. In a statement, the institute said: “Although the museum is still awaiting signed agreements from several donors, the D.I.A. has secured payment schedules that will allow the museum to exceed its annual commitment of $5 million in the first five years, earning the museum a 6.75 percent present-value benefit on those advance payments.”

The plan to save the collection from sale was put together after foundations, private donors and the State of Michigan raised $800 million last year, essentially to ransom the museum from city ownership. The bargain provided the money to help shore up public workers’ pensions, as long as the museum’s collection was protected and its ownership transferred to an independent charitable trust. The museum, which has struggled financially for decades along with the city, made its first payment as part of the bargain last month.

Source: The NY Times