Fisk University this week cleared a major hurdle in its bid to raise $30 million by selling half ownership in its treasured Alfred Stieglitz Collection of art and photographs, when the Tennessee Supreme Court refused without comment to hear appeals by the state’s attorney general, who was seeking to halt the proposed sale.
The decision by the state’s highest court means an appeals court approval of the proposed sale stands and the Fisk case goes back to the trial judge who originally heard the case. The appeals court had ordered the lower court to work with Fisk on some guidelines governing the valuable collection that Fisk received as a gift more than half a century ago from the late artist Georgia O’Keeffe.
At the time of the gift, Fisk had agreed to several strict covenants tied to it, including a promise to never sell all or any part of the 101-piece collection, which includes paintings by Cezanne, Renoir, Deigo Rivera, O’Keeffe and photographs by photographer legend Alfred Stieglitz.
When the school’s financial fortunes began a steady downfall in the last decade, Fisk decided to monetize the collection by seeking a court declaration that it was the clear and sole owner of the collection and that the strict covenants essentially died with the passing of O’Keeffe.
The state, in its position as guardian for the public of charitable gifts to institutions, opposed the sale. It argued that the long-established “dead hand” rule applied to the O’Keeffe gift, meaning the intent of a gift must be honored beyond the death of a donor. The state also contended the Tennessee courts were not applying the longstanding so-called cy pres doctrine courts across the nation use when allowing gift recipients to deviate from the terms of a charitable gift.
An essential component of cy pres doctrine holds that any deviation must be as closely in line with the intent of the donor in order to be acceptable.
The state attorney general’s office issued a brief statement saying it was “disappointed” in the Tennessee Supreme Court decision. It stopped short of saying whether it had given up its fight.
