Prometheus 6

Fisk can't sell any of O'Keeffe's collection
Judge says gift expressly for art education
By JONATHAN MARX
Staff Writer
Published: Wednesday, 06/13/07

A Davidson County judge told Fisk University on Tuesday that it cannot sell two paintings worth millions of dollars — or any of the 101 works of art in a collection donated to the university by artist Georgia O'Keeffe in 1949.

The university spent the past year and a half locked in a legal battle over whether it could sell two paintings from its Alfred Stieglitz Collection, O'Keeffe's Radiator Building — Night, New York and Marsden Hartley's Painting No. 3.

Fisk wanted to sell the paintings to raise funds for a variety of pressing needs, including building improvements and replenishing its endowment.