On May 24 the news broke that Detroit\u2019s emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, was considering whether the city could or should sell off the art collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts(DIA) to help pay back its debts. In the roughly week and a half since then, loud reactions have been heard from many corners of the art world, as well as writers in various media outlets and Michigan politicians themselves. The reactions pretty much range from \u201cthis is a bad idea\u201d to \u201cthis is a terrible idea.\u201d<\/p>\n
For his part \u2014 and not surprisingly \u2014 DIA Director Graham Beal told the New York Times that he didn\u2019t think the museum\u2019s collection really could be sold, since it\u2019s held in the public trust:<\/p>\n
\u201cAs far as we\u2019re concerned,\u201d Mr. Beal said, \u201cas objects held in the public trust, they actually don\u2019t have a value. I know people find that odd.\u201d<\/p>\n
This, of course, was nicely counterbalanced in the article by a statement from Orr\u2019s spokesperson, Bill Nowling, who said:<\/p>\n
We have to look at everything on the table. As much as it would pain us to do it \u2014 and it does; I\u2019m a great lover of art and so is Kevyn \u2014 we\u2019ve got a responsibility to rationalize all the assets of the city and find out what the worth is and what the city holds.<\/p>\n
In other words, it may require something more than rational argument to stop a potential sale. So Michigan Republican Senator Randy Richardville has introduced a bill that would attempt to do exactly that, according to USA Today.<\/p>\n