Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Not So Fast

I said yesterday that The Tennessean's report on the latest in the Fisk-O'Keeffe litigation -- under the headline "Door is left open for Fisk to sell Georgia O'Keeffe art," and complete with triumphant quotes from Fisk President Hazel O'Leary ("Those who wait long enough get good news") -- was a little premature.

Sure enough, today brings a very different headline: "Fisk deal to sell O'Keeffe art takes hit."

We learn that "the state attorney general is casting doubt on whether a sale could move forward as easily as Fisk officials had initially hoped." He issued a statement saying that "neither the university nor O'Keeffe's estate in New Mexico should be allowed to move the collection."

As I mentioned last summer, Fisk now has to prove that compliance with the terms of the gift has become "impossible or impracticable." The AG says that, "given Fisk's recent reaccreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the university can no longer argue that the sale of the Collection is necessary to its financial survival."