October 23, 2007
Group Files Injunction to Stop Randolph College Art Auction
The trustees of Randolph College decided earlier this month to auction off four of the college’s most valuable works of art in an effort to raise $32-million. The decision has been met with ongoing lawsuits and protests, and today a group of students, alumnae, and donors filed a motion for injunction in Lynchburg Circuit Court to stop the sale.
The motion is in addition to other court battles concerning the college’s art. The works to be auctioned are George Wesley Bellows’s “Men of the Docks,” Edward Hicks’s “A Peaceable Kingdom,” Ernest Martin Hennings’s “Through the Arroyo,” and Rufino Tamayo’s “Troubador.”
The proceeds from the sale of the art will be invested in the college’s endowment. The results of the sale will determine if the college will consider selling additional pieces from the 3,500 works at the college’s Maier Museum of Art.
The institution, which began admitting men this fall and until recently was known as Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, had been put on warning status by its accreditor last year for lack of financial stability.
Late last month, the Supreme Court of Virginia announced that it would hear appeals in two lawsuits against the college involving the decision this year to admit men and issues of donor intent regarding the art collection. A lower court had dismissed both cases, which were brought by students and alumnae of the former Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, as well as donors.
Erin Strout | Posted on Tuesday October 23, 2007 | PermalinkComments
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Saving the art is vital to the college and the greater Lynchburg community. The Board of Trustees is clearly violating both museum ethics and donor intent.
— concerned Oct 23, 02:13 PM #
Art is part of the college’s educational mission, not the Trustees’ piggy bank — practically every art professional group has denounced the auction. What does it take for this Board to admit a mistake? The art should stay at R-MWC and the college should secure its future by embracing its strengths — single-sex education, a stellar art collection, and academic rigor. That will bring the alumnae (and their money) back to the college.
— R-MWC Alumna Oct 23, 02:31 PM #
Thank goodness someone is moving to stop Randolph College from selling paintings from its art collection to stoke its general fund. What they have moved to do is unethical, and – if allowed to go forward – will permanently tarnish the College’s reputation.
Once the Court issues the injunction, as it surely must, the next step in righting this wrong should be for the Board and President to resign.
— Take Responsibility Oct 23, 02:41 PM #
I wonder what RC’s accreditation agency thinks about the condemnation of the Board’s actions? Doesn’t SACS strongly stress the principle of integrity? So many major art associations – peers, no less – have condemned this sale and labeled it as unethical. Why does SACS not see this as violating THEIR integrity principles, as well?
— IloveR-MWC Oct 23, 05:52 PM #
How sad that those who care most about RMWC have to resort to legal action to save a stellar and beloved art collection and a gem of a women’s liberal arts college. The people of Lynchburg, the Commonwealth of Virginia and the thousands of women who proudly list RMWC on their CVs are being robbed – as are those who may not now attend. The Trustees and Administration need to be stopped before the damage to the school and its reputation is irreparable. The automatic deference and sympathy generally and understandably offered to those holding the offices of ‘College President’ and ‘Trustee’ are not deserved in this case of self-serving, self-righteous and increasingly misleading behaviour.
— RMWC Alum '75 Oct 25, 11:31 AM #