Appeals Court Sides with Fisk in O’Keeffe Art Case

A Tennessee Appeals Court Wednesday put Fisk University one step closer to selling a stake in its famed art collection, worth more than $60 million.

The decision overturns a lower court ruling that blocked Fisk’s 30-million dollar agreement to share the Stieglitz Collection with a museum backed by Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton. The late painter Georgia O’Keeffe donated the 101-piece collection to Fisk in 1949. The Appeals Court ruling also rejects that O’Keeffe’s estate, as represented by a museum in Santa Fe, has standing in the case. Attorneys for the O’Keeffe museum argued the art should revert to it since Fisk couldn’t afford to keep it up.

Fisk spokesman Ken West says the school intends to finalize the deal with the Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas. The money was originally meant to restore the school’s endowment. West says financial conditions haven’t improved.

“It hasn’t gotten any easier in light of the prevailing, global economic contagion.”

Unless the O’Keeffe Museum files an appeal in the next 60 days, Fisk will return to Davidson County Chancery Court to argue the merits of the Crystal Bridges agreement. The Tennessee Attorney General, however, has standing in the case and has previously blocked attempts to sell the collection and permanently move it out of state.