Wal-Mart heir eyes O'Keeffe collection

NASHVILLE, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- Wal-Mart heir Alice Walton has her eye on the Georgia O'Keeffe collection under dispute between a New Mexico museum and a Tennessee university.

A Tennessee judge is to take up a proposed settlement Sept. 6. Walton says if the deal between the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe and Fisk University in Nashville falls through she would pay $30 million for a half-interest in the 101-piece collection, The Santa Fe New Mexican reports.

The school wants to sell two pieces -- O'Keeffe's "Radiator Building -- Night, New York" and another by American modernist Marsden Hartley -- to finance improvements but the museum has blocked the sale. O'Keeffe gave the collection to the university in 1949.

Walton said she wanted to keep the collection intact and would split displays between her Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark., and Fisk.

Museum Chairman Saul Cohen said the collection is not for sale.

Under the latest proposal, the museum would pay Fisk $7.5 million for "Radiator Building" and the school could sell the Hartley. If the museum were to sell the O'Keeffe within 20 years, half would go to the university.