Fisk, O'Keeffe Museum Give Closing Arguments in Court

NASHVILLE—Attorneys for Fisk University and the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum gave closing arguments on Thursday in the two institutions' dispute over control of an art collection given to Fisk by Georgia O'Keeffe in 1949, the Associated Press reports. The O'Keeffe museum contended that the collection should be turned over to it, because Fisk violated the terms O'Keeffe set out for the loan, including that all the art be displayed together, by loaning works for traveling exhibitions, keeping the collection in storage for two years, and trying to sell paintings to fix the university's financial woes. Fisk has argued that it's doing the best it can with its limited resources, and that it could not display the collection because it was trying to fund renovations to its Van Vechten art gallery.

Museum lawyer Bill Harbison said in arguments that Fisk has held the Alfred Stieglitz Collection of Modern American and European Art "hostage in an effort to monetize it," while Fisk argued it now has the money to renovate the Van Vechten gallery and put the works on exhibit.

Nashville Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle will now decide if the school can keep the 101-piece collection.