Cash-strapped museum urges judge to OK contentious art sale
BOSTON — A cash-strapped Massachusetts museum urged a judge on the state’s highest court Tuesday to quickly sign off on a contentious plan to sell dozens of pieces of art, including works by Norman Rockwell.
An attorney for the Berkshire Museum told Justice David Lowy it is nearing an April deadline to sell some of the works this spring — otherwise it will have to wait until the fall. The museum is in dire financial straits and losing money with each delay, attorney William Lee said.
“This is a situation where a museum that serves an enormous community purpose — that provides a window on the world to a group of folks who otherwise might not have it — is in dire circumstances and looking for a way to fulfill its mission,” Lee said.
The museum and Massachusetts’ attorney general are asking Lowy to approve an agreement they reached last month to allow the museum to sell up to 40 pieces of artwork.
Under the agreement, an unnamed U.S. museum would buy Rockwell’s “Shuffleton’s Barbershop” and loan the work to the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge for a period of time
before lending it to other museums in the state.
The museum said it will sell the rest of the artwork until it reaches $55 million in proceeds. The museum said it may not have to sell all 39 other pieces,
which include Rockwell’s “Shaftsbury Blacksmith Shop” and works by Alexander Calder, Albert Bierstadt and George Henry Durrie.
The judge didn’t immediately rule on the matter Tuesday.