Fisk, museum compromise on O'Keeffe work

NASHVILLE, Aug. 28 (UPI) -- Tennessee's attorney general was expected to weigh in soon on a proposal for the disposition of a Georgia O'Keeffe painting to raise funds for Fisk University.

Whether Fisk should sell "Radiator Building -- Night, New York" has become a matter of artistic and legal debate. While it has been reported that offers of up to $25 million have been made, critics said the sale would undercut O'Keeffe's intent for giving a 101-work collection to the university in 1949, the Christian Science Monitor reported Tuesday.

The first effort to sell "Radiator Building" was blocked in court by the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, N.M., which offered $7 million in exchange for the painting. Tennessee Attorney General Robert Cooper interceded, saying the price was too low.

The O'Keeffe museum and Fisk since developed a compromise that would give Fisk $7.5 million and would allow it to display the painting for part of each year.

Cooper was expected to file an opinion this week on the proposal.

"The major collection we're investing in is our students," Fisk President Hazel O'Leary has said about her push to sell the painting.