Museum donors, current and former students, and former staff members of Washington’s Corcoran Gallery have gone to court in order to halt the dismantling of the Gallery, following its announcement in May that its art, building and school would be taken over by the National Gallery of Art and George Washington University, The New York Times reports.
The opposition, under the group banner of Save the Corcoran are arguing that change is in violation of the 1869 deed and the charter of the museum’s founder, banker William W. Corcoran, who gave his art for the ‘perpetual establishment and maintenance of a public gallery and museum’ to promote painting, sculpture and other fine arts.
Officials at the Corcoran — which has been operating at a deficit — filed papers asking to override Corcoran’s 1869 deed, saying it was ‘financially impossible’ to carry on the museum and school in their present form and that the proposed plan would be the solution ‘most closely aligned with the original intent of Mr. Corcoran.’
3 July 2014
