Valparaiso University filed a petition Tuesday to move forward with the auction of the three cornerstone works of art from the Brauer Museum to fund freshman dorm renovations, noting a $9 million deficit and declining student enrollment.
The petition, filed before Porter Superior Court Michael Fish, cites the ongoing cost of storing the artwork and the inability to securely display the pieces in the museum, among the additional reasons to auction it off. The artworks were moved into storage in September.
In an email to the campus community Tuesday morning, VU President José Padilla said the university had filed the petition and pledged to update the campus once the court makes a ruling.
“We will continue to take steps that we believe are in the best interest of all our students, in support of our mission and the University’s future — our highest priorities,” Padilla said in the email.
The paintings are “Mountain Landscape” by Frederic E. Church; “Rust Red Hills” by Georgia O’Keeffe; and “The Silver Veil and Golden Gate” by Frederick Childe Hassam.
Padilla first announced the possible sale to the campus in February 2023, setting off a controversy on campus and drawing criticism from students, faculty and the greater university community, as well as opening the museum to censure or sanctions from other museums for lending or borrowing artwork.
The proposal also drew the ire of Richard Brauer, the museum’s namesake and founder, who has threatened to remove his name from the building if the sale moves forward.
The university claims in its petition that the O’Keeffe and Hassam paintings don’t fit with the collection as established by Sloan and that Richard Brauer knew as much when he authorized the purchase of the O’Keeffe in 1962. The purchase of the Hassam followed five years later.
According to appraisals received by the university, the fair market value of the O’Keeffe, is estimated at $10.5 million to $15 million; the Hassam, between $1 million and $3.5 million; and the Church at $1 million to $3 million.
The petition seeks to modify the trust established by the late Percy H. Sloan, which provided the paintings or the funding for them, to allow for the sale. Under that trust, the paintings could only be sold if the funds were reinvested into the museum’s collection.
The university wants to modify the trust “because such conditions have become impracticable, impossible and wasteful,” according to the petition.
The funds would be used to renovate freshman dorms, “and create therein the ‘Sloan Gallery of American Paintings’ in order to directly display other works of the Sloan collection to students, all of which is intended to increase student enrollment and more consistently honor Sloan’s intent of furthering conservative art and art education so far as is possible and as is consistent with the general plans of Valparaiso University.”
The sale of the artwork to renovate the dorms, the university argues in its petition, would help increase student enrollment. The university is facing a $9 million deficit this fiscal year, and the cost to renovate the museum to securely store the paintings would cost $50,000 to $100,000, with museum security guards and front desk staff costing $150,000 in salaries annually.
“Because Valparaiso University has experienced operating deficits for a number of years due to its declining enrollment, it lacks the operating funds required to renovate and staff the Brauer Museum of Art at Valparaiso University such that the O’Keeffe, Hassam, and Church paintings could be displayed securely,” the document states.
Attorney Patrick McEuen, who represented Richard Brauer and the late Philipp Brockington, a law professor and museum benefactor, in a lawsuit that attempted to halt the sale, disagrees with the petition and is weighing his options on behalf of his clients. Porter Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Thode ruled in October that neither Brauer nor Brockington had standing to stop the sale. Brockington died in November.
“It doesn’t make any sense and it wasn’t in keeping with Percy Sloan’s intentions, obviously,” McEuen said.
alavalley@chicagotribune.com
