Christie’s Reveals Detroit Art Appraisal: $866 Million

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Randy Kennedy

“Death on a Pale Horse” (1796) by Benjamin West; Credit 
Founders Society Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund

MICHIGAN---The heart of the world-class collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts would raise somewhere between $452 million and $866 million if sold to help the City of Detroit dig its way out of bankruptcy, Christie’s said Wednesday, announcing the results of a highly anticipated appraisal. Christie’s examination was limited to works that were bought entirely or in part with city funds, because those works could be sold more easily than donated works, for example, whose sale could generate legal challenges. So the appraisal covers only a small part of the collection in terms of numbers — less than 5 percent of the museum’s 66,000 works — but many of the works are among the most important in the collection, by artists like Bruegel, Matisse and van Gogh. While Christie’s did not release estimates for individual works, it did note that 11 works — which it did not name — accounted for 75 percent of the total estimate in its report. [link]