DIA Deathwatch

The next step in liquidating the Detroit Institute of Arts collection was taken last week when a group of Detroit banks, bond holders and the AFSCME union filed a motion to allow independent evaluation of the collection. They stated that Kevin Orr is not acting “aggressively enough to monetize the art”. The collection is supposedly worth billions of dollars.

Back in August I posted the following on this blog.

Recently a tri-county (Oakland, Macomb and Wayne) millage was passed to keep the DIA open. That will be invalidated if the artwork is sold, wiping out $23 million in operating funds which would probably force an immediate closure. Here are a couple of quotes. The first is from L. Brooks Patterson, the Oakland County Executive:
“If Kevin Orr (Emergency Financial Manager) moves in any way to reduce the quality of the DIA’s collection, I can absolutely guarantee we will go to court to seek suspension of that tax, which was imposed to support the museum as presently constituted. We are not going to pay once some of the finest works are sold.”

The second quote is from Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel:
“Why would we continue a millage for something that no longer exists?”

We’re witnessing cultural bankruptcy and sadly, the DIA is under a real deathwatch. Get to the DIA soon, before it inevitably closes and the art is auctioned off.  

Check out the DIA here: http://www.dia.org