Sale Halted/NYT 11-10-2007
College Art Sale Halted
A Virginia judge has granted a temporary injunction preventing the sale of four paintings owned by Randolph College’s Maier Museum of Art until litigation against the school is settled, The Associated Press reported. The ruling on Thursday was in response to motions filed by a group seeking to stop this financially troubled school from selling the works to increase its endowment. The paintings, including “Men of the Docks” (1912), by George Bellows, were to be sold through Christie’s this month in New York, for an estimated $25 million to $35 million. Judge J. Leyburn Mosby Jr. of the Lynchburg Circuit Court found that “the harm if the art is sold is greater than the harm if the art is not sold.” The injunction is to take effect once the opponents to the sale post a $10 million bond. The college, in Lynchburg, will appeal to the Virginia Supreme Court and hopes to have the decision reversed before the first auction on Nov. 19, a college spokeswoman said. Another motion previously filed by Randolph College asks the circuit court to determine whether the school can legally sell or share 36 pieces of art bought from a trust bequeathed by a former professor.