The immorality of using Detroit’s art to bail out bankrupt city
"It’s there carved in stone above the entrance of the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA): “Dedicated by the people of Detroit to the knowledge and enjoyment of art.” Not the building, of course, but the museum’s collections: thousands upon thousands of works of art acquired through the generosity of people who believed in the power of art to improve the lives of others they didn’t know and would never know. It was their gift to the future. And now, through no fault of their own, that future is being threatened. [...] I am not a lawyer. And legal experts disagree as to whom is right: the city’s emergency manager and state governor or the state’s attorney-general. But I know that selling off some or all of the collection will not solve Detroit’s problems."
James Cuno (President and Chief Executive of the J. Paul Getty Trust), The Art Newspaper, 4 September 2013
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