O’Keeffe ruling will be appealed

Controversy continues to swirl around the collection of paintings Georgia O’Keeffe donated to Fisk University in Nashville.

In March, a judge permanently banned any sale of the 101-piece collection -- which not only includes works by O’Keefe but also Picasso, Renoir and Cezanne -- and set an October deadline for Fisk to retrieve the artwork from storage and put it on display.

The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in New Mexico had sued to gain the rights over the collection because of the school’s attempts to sell paintings and because they weren’t currently on display.

But the university said this week that it planned to appeal the ruling, noting that the reason the art was put into storage in 2005 was that the gallery where it was exhibited was falling apart, and there were fears the works would be damaged.

“In short,” Fisk said, “the court’s order [in March] results in the inevitable deterioration of the collection. Prudence requires that we appeal the court’s order to maintain the art in a manner consistent with contemporary conservation methods.”