For decades, visitors to the Detroit Institute of Arts have been amused, inspired and perhaps warned of the dangers of overindulgence by the peasant revelers of 16th century painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder.
Now, as a result of Detroit’s bankruptcy filing, “The Wedding Dance,” considered priceless by lovers of the world-famous city collection, has a price tag of $100 million to $200 million, according to a Christie’s auction house report made public on Thursday.
The New York-based auction house, in an audit of some of the museum’s best-known pieces that was released Thursday, estimated the fair market value of 1,741 pieces bought with city funds over the years as between $454 million to $867 million. The valuation was requested by city Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr shortly before the city filed the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.
For art and museum lovers, the valuation is a surreal exercise — putting a price on cultural resources they believe should never be sold.
Orr has indicated he has no intention to sell the art. Rather, he earlier asked Christie’s for other options and was told there were several, including possibly using the art as collateral for a loan. Even so, the potential for an outright sale cannot be ruled out in an unpredictable municipal bankruptcy proceeding.
Lee Rosenbaum, author of the CultureGrrl art blog, called the valuation report “stomach-turning.”
“We can only hope that any speculation about how much these works might bring on the open market is a mere academic exercise and that the cost of Christie’s problematic appraisal will prove to be a waste of scarce taxpayer dollars,” Rosebaum wrote on her blog on Thursday, Chicago Tribune informs.
