Museum's "Crown Jewel" Painting by Marsden Hartley on Auction Block

28 November 2011

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The Birger Sandzen Memorial Gallery in Lindsborg, Kan., is selling this "Untitled (Still Life)," painted in 1919 by Marsden Hartley, at Sotheby's with an estimate of $700,000-$900,000 in the Dec. 1 auction of American Paintings, Drawings & Sculpture.

When the capital campaign to renovate the Birger Sandzen Memorial Gallery fell short by $700,000, Bethany College, in Lindsborg, Kan., decided to sell the lone Marsden Hartley in its collection.

The oil painting, “Untitled (Still Life),” from 1919, reflects the American modernist’s connection with the German Expressionist movement, as well as the American Southwest.

The choice to auction off the painting, approved by the board of directors, has not been met with universal approval, but the choice to deaccession part of a collection rarely is.

Curator Ron Michael has stated, “The Hartley painting didn’t fit the gallery’s mission statement.”

Randall Griffey, curator of American art at the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College in Massachusetts and a Bethany alum, told the Kansas City Star that the work is the college gallery's "crown jewel," noting that it inspired him as a student.

Hartley's still life is expected to fetch between $700,000-$900,000 at a Sotheby's auction in New York on Thursday. Proceeds of the sale are slated for renovations of the Birger Sandzen Memorial Gallery.

(Report: Christine Bolli for ARTFIXdaily)

Read more at Kansas City Star

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