Fisk University, the imperiled HBCU in Nashville, is having a hard time making money off the artwork bequeathed to it by Georgia O’Keeffe, that painter of colorful vaginas flowers.
Fisk’s trustees in December 2005 voted to try to sell off two signature pieces of the art collection donated by the New Mexico artist to help keep the school afloat. Those efforts became bogged down in court battles over whether the sale of paintings violated the terms of O’Keeffe’s bequest.
Fisk is seeking court approval to sell a 50 percent stake in the art collection to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art for $30 million. Under that arrangement, the collection would travel between Nashville and the Bentonville, Ark., museum founded by Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton.
