A new expert appraisal of the Detroit Institute of Arts’ collection, which some creditors are demanding be sold to help pay municipal debts in the city’s bankruptcy case, has found that the works could be worth $2.7 billion to $4.6 billion.
The appraisal, commissioned by the city and the museum in advance of a federal bankruptcy trial in August, also added that such a price tag would never be attained at sale, for reasons including donor lawsuits that would delay or prevent the sale of many valuable works, weakness in the market for some kinds of paintings, and lower sale prices because of the sheer bulk that would flood into the market at once. The appraiser, Artvest Partners, an art investment firm based in New York, said that because of these factors and the notoriety of such a forced sale from a venerable public institution, the bulk of the museum’s collection might raise as little as $850 million.
“A significant segment of D.I.A.’s collection is in areas that have fallen out of favor with collectors, and that are underperforming their market peaks in 2007,” a report by the firm said, noting in particular old master and 19th-century European paintings and pre-1950s American art.
The numbers and the report’s conclusions will undoubtedly be fought over fiercely at trial. Over the last several months, creditors have accused city officials of underestimating the value of the collection in order to protect it. The collection comprises more than 60,000 pieces, which are owned by the city and considered a municipal asset. Late last year, at the behest of Detroit’s emergency manager, Kevyn D. Orr, Christie’s appraised a small but significant portion of the collection, including some of the museum’s greatest masterpieces, and estimated that those works — by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, van Gogh and several others — would bring $454 million to $867 million if sold.
That estimate, which looked only at works bought by the city that would not be subject to litigation by donors, took on great significance as private foundations and state lawmakers put together the so-called grand bargain, pledges of more than $800 million in private and state money to protect the art collection in exchange for helping the city to shore up pension funds.
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