Fate of Famed Art Collection UnresolvedFate of Famed Art Collection Unresolved

David Thayne Leibell, partner in the Stamford, Conn. and New York City offices of Wiggin and Dana LLP

The fate of both Fisk University and one of the nation’s great modern art collections, the Alfred Steiglitz Collection (the Collection), remain in doubt after a Tennessee Chancery Court recently rejected the current terms of a $30 million deal whereby Crystal Bridges Museum, in Bentonville, Arkansas (founded and supported by Walmart heiress Alice Walton), would purchase an undivided 50 percent joint interest in the Collection allowing it to display the Collection for half of the year in Arkansas. The court gave the Tennessee Attorney General (AG), as protector of charitable gifts, until Sept. 20, 2010 to propose a local solution for the C...