Well, never mind all the appeals to civic pride we've been seeing. The appraisers are here. According to a column in the ArtsBeat section of the New York Times, Detroit, by which they mean the city's emergency manager, has hired (using of course taxpayer money) the auction house Christie's to
appraise part of the city-owned art collection.
Okay, a shoe has dropped, but "part" doesn't mean "all." Let's see how this is being spun by the auction house.
That would be James Christie, the founder of the auction house that still bears his name, as his friend Thomas Gainsborough painted him in 1788. Christie was Gainsborough's dealer, as you can see from the Gainsborough landscape he's leaning on. This is now resident at the Getty in Los Angeles, a collection with, well, all the money in the world.
The specifics?
The office of Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr will pay Christie’s $200,000 for the appraisal which is expected to be completed by mid-October, the Detroit Free Press reported on its Web site. Christie’s will only appraise works of art that are clearly owned by the city, and that are not bound by donor restrictions that might rule out a possible sale, the newspaper said, citing Mr. Orr’s spokesman Bill Nowling.
That are owned by the city. If you live in Detroit, you'd better start asking exactly how the city came to possess the art, because there may very well be donor restrictions on what the city owns too.
The Detroit Free Press has even greater detail. Orr told the paper he had made no decisions about selling any of the art (um, the $200,000 fee says something entirely different), and the DIA had something to say too:
“We applaud the EM’s focus on rebuilding the City, but would point out that he undercuts that core goal by jeopardizing Detroit’s most important cultural institution,” the statement said. “In addition, recent moves in Oakland and Macomb counties to invalidate the tri-county millage if art is sold virtually ensure that any forced sale of art would precipitate the rapid demise of the DIA. Removing $23 million in annual operating funds — nearly 75% of the museum’s operating budget — and violating the trust of donors and supporters will cripple the museum.”
Or, in other words, saying what we all know already.
Christie's, as you'd expect, doesn't want to have any more involvement in this than is absolutely necessary. Among other things, the Christie's statement said
“We want to continue to focus our efforts on being a positive force in both the interests of the City of Detroit and its arts community, including working with our fellow arts professionals at the DIA and with the City to find alternatives to selling that would still provide the City with needed revenue.”
Like what? Working for no fee?
I hope this ends well, but there are all kinds of reasons not to be optimistic.