Legislator proposes pawning Pollock

13 February 2011

Jackson Pollock, Mural, 1943. Oil on canvas, 8 by 20 feet. University of Iowa Museum of Art, Gift of Peggy Guggenheim 1959.6 / © 2009 Pollock-Krasner Foundation / ARS, NY

Iowa State Rep. Scott Raecker has an idea about how to fund art student scholarships at the University of Iowa. Sell the school's Jackson Pollock "Mural," a massive painting valued at $140 million.

It is Pollock's seminal work that reshaped his style and transformed American art in the 1940s. 'Mural' helped catapult Pollock to international fame as a leading modern painter.

The late Peggy Guggenheim, Pollock's patron, donated 'Mural' to the University of Iowa Art Museum in 1951. Since then it has inspired generations of students and others.

A flood at the university's museum in 2008 forced the evacuation of the Pollock, and 12,000 other artworks. 'Mural' has been on loan to the Figge Art Museum, in Davenport, Iowa.

Raecker introduced the bill to sell 'Mural' on Wednesday. David Miles, the president of the Board of Regents, State of Iowa, said that the proposal to force the art sale “is a profoundly bad idea...".

The Association of Art Museum Directors and the American Association of Museums concurred on Friday with a statement saying, “Such a sale would violate a fundamental ethical principle of the museum field...” since “an accessioned work of art may not be treated as a disposable financial asset.”

Read more at Quad-City Times

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