Albright College is selling its art collection due to financial difficulties, reporting shortfalls of $20 million in the past two years. The sale features 524 lots, including works by notable artists such as Karel Appel, Romare Bearden, and Jasper Johns. Albright's administration states that the collection, consisting of 2,300 objects, is not integral to the educational mission of the college. They emphasize the high cost of maintaining the art collection, which exceeds the estimated value of $200,000 for the items being sold.
"We needed to stop the bleeding," says James Gaddy, vice-president for administration at Albright, noting that over the past two years the college has experienced shortfalls of $20m.
Gaddy claimed that Albright's 2,300-object art collection was "not core to our mission" as an educational institution and was costing the college more than the art is worth.
"The value of the artworks is not extraordinary," he says, estimating the total value of the pieces consigned to Pook & Pook at $200,000.
He claimed that the cost of maintaining the collection was high and that the cost of staffing the art gallery where the objects were displayed and (mostly) stored was "more than half a million dollars."
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