New York Public Library to Sell Major Artworks to Raise Funds

Asher B Durand's famous painting is up for sale ... hopefully the Wadsworth might acquire it to increase its holdings.
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Sanjeev

The New York Times > Arts > Art & Design > New York Public Library to Sell Major Artworks to Raise Funds

New York Public Library to Sell Major Artworks to Raise Funds

The New York Public Library has decided to sell 19 works of art from its collection - including "Kindred Spirits," a widely admired landscape by the Hudson River School painter Asher B. Durand, and two seminal portraits of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart - so that it can better compete in acquisitions of important books and collections.

Sotheby's, which has been retained by the library, estimates that the works will sell for $50 million to $75 million. The transactions will be handled either privately or by public auction. Paul LeClerc, the library's president, said all of the money would go toward buying books, manuscripts and other works on paper and toward bolstering the library's endowment.

"We're not a museum," he said. "We don't have a staff devoted to paintings and sculptures. One of the thrills of running a great library is keeping up with the explosion of information. If we don't grow, we cannot maintain the claim that we are one of the greatest libraries in the world."

In the hope that many of the artworks can remain on public view in New York, library officials said, any New York institution that wishes to purchase a work will be given preferential payment terms. But it is unclear how much of a financial compromise officials are going to be willing to make to keep the artworks - paintings and sculptures by major American artists - in the area.

Art experts say the divestiture would be one of the largest sales of artworks by a major public institution in recent memory.

Over the last two decades, arts institutions in need of money have occasionally sought to part with valuable works to maintain their stated missions. For example, the Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center sold of one of Leonardo's Codex manuscripts to Bill Gates for $30.8 million in 1994.