Georgia O Keeffe s
Green Oak Leaves (ca. 1923) was the star lot of the Newark Museum s sale. Courtesy of Sotheby s.
The Newark Museum of Art today sold off a slate of works at Sotheby’s, despite considerable objections from experts and scholars, to bring in $5.9 million into the institution.
Of the 11 works on offer at the auction of American art in New York, one was unsold, two sold for under estimate, and the remaining eight exceeded their presale expectations.
The highest price paid was $1.2 million for Georgia O’Keeffe’s
Green Oak Leaves (1923), which had an irrevocable bid and was estimated at $500,000 to $700,000.
The Frieze Art Fair, with timed entry allowing galleries and guests more time to connect will likely serve as an example for other cultural institutions around the world seeking to reopen for in-person events post-vaccination.
Thomas Cole,
Arch of Nero (1846). The painting, owned by the Newark Museum of Art, will hit the auction block at Sotheby s.
When the Newark Museum of Art announced a plan to sell 17 objects in March, it provided few details as to which artworks might appear on the auction block. But a gradual release of the specifics has enraged some historians, including previous employees of the museum, who described the sale as a misguided attempt to monetize some of the collection’s best examples of American art, including a painting by the landscape artist Thomas Cole.
On Friday, opponents of the auction released a letter addressed to the museum’s director, Linda Harrison, demanding that she “cancel the self-diminishment and monetization of Newark’s art” because it was “inflicting irreparable damage” on the institution.
The Newark Museum is putting Thomas Cole s The Arch of Nero (1846) on the auction block at Sotheby s, carrying an estimate of $500,000-$700,000
An open letter signed by more than 50 art historians, curators and researchers was submitted today to the Newark Museum of Art protesting its plan to sell works from its collection, most prominently Thomas Cole’s 1846 painting
The Arch of Nero, organisers say.
The letter, addressed to Linda Harrison, director and chief executive of the museum, denounces the sales, known as deaccessioning, as a “senseless monetisation” of the art. Among the works being offered by the institution are examples by Albert Bierstadt, Mary Cassatt, Burgoyne Diller, Thomas Eakins, Marsden Hartley, Childe Hassam, Thomas Moran, Georgia O Keeffe, Frederic Remington and Charles Sheeler.
Scholars beg N.J. museum not to sell historic painting to recoup pandemic loses
Updated May 07, 2021;
Posted May 07, 2021 Arch of Nero by Thomas Cole on display at the Newark Museum of Art in 2000. AMANDA BROWN/ THE STAR-LEDGER SLSL
Facebook Share
A group of scholars and curators is calling on The Newark Museum of Art to reconsider auctioning off a historic painting to help curb a $6 million revenue loss during the pandemic.
The 1846 “Arch of Nero” painting by Thomas Cole is slated to go to auction on May 19 and is estimated to go for $500,000 to $700,000. The museum which has been closed throughout most of the pandemic and has not yet reopened plans to auction 17 pieces, including those by Georgia O’Keeffe and Thomas Moran.