Fisk’s O’Keeffe sale is halted

Tennessee Atty. Gen. Bob Cooper on Thursday halted a proposed deal that would have allowed the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum to buy a painting by the artist from Fisk University for millions of dollars below its estimated value.

The agreement would have given the O’Keeffe museum the exclusive right to purchase “Radiator Building -- Night, New York,” for $7 million. Since that agreement was announced, the university has been offered up to $25 million for the picture.

Fisk is trying to sell the O’Keeffe work and another piece from its Stieglitz Collection to replenish the historically black university’s endowment.

The art collection was donated to Fisk in 1949 by O’Keeffe, and her estate objected to the sale on the grounds it would violate the terms of the bequest. That dispute was settled with the agreement to sell the O’Keeffe painting to the museum.

The agreement required the approval of Cooper, who as attorney general has supervisory duties over any charitable gift to Tennesseans. Cooper said that “the $7-million purchase price offered by the museum was simply too deep a discount from the apparent market value for this office to approve.”