Trial begins today in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Detroit over whether the city of Detroit is even eligible for the Chapter 9 bankrupcty protection it sought earlier this year. The major point of contention is whether Detroit may, under the Michigan constitution, seek bankrupcty in a way that would reduce pension payments (as it would reduce payment to all its creditors).
As discussed here before, the stakes are high for the Detroit institute of Arts, whose collection is owned by the city. Recent comments by Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr (who today will defend the bankrutpcy filing) underscore that even barring a proposed outright sale, Orr views the DIA collection as an important part of Detroit's ability to emerge from bankrupcty. Obviously, if the city is found ineligible in the first instance, it takes the possible sale of the collection off the table.
Ford Bell, President of the American Alliance of Museums, also pens a column today in the Detroit Free Press distinguishing the collection from other assets of the city or museum. Key among those distinctions, to him, is his point that "the Federal Accounting Standards Board decided years ago that museum collections should not be viewed as assets on a balance sheet."
Expect this and many other aspects of deaccessioning to be covered Monday at Columbia Law School's Kernochan Center for Law, Media and the Arts event "Selling the Museum’s Collection: Is Deaccessioning Ever Appropriate," with Roberta Smith, Donn Zaretsky, Pippa Loengard, and yours truly.
