The latest battle in the war over an art collection currently owned by Fisk University has been won by the school, a Tennessee court ruled Tuesday. The filing states that while the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe represents the late painter’s estate, it has no say when it comes to works O’Keeffe donated to Fisk in 1949.

The decision is key for the university, which had been ordered last year by a Nashville chancellor to display thecollection — it had been in storage — or forfeit it to the O'KeeffeMuseum. Fisk first approached the courts in 2007, asking for permission to sell two of the donated works in order to raise money. The request was denied on the grounds that it violated the original terms of the bequest, which stipulated that the works be displayed together, as was a possible arrangement with Arkansas’s Crystal Bridges Museum that would have involved sharing the collection, which is appraised at approximately $75 million (Fisk has since appealed the latter decision). 

Tuesday’s ruling is certainly a step in the right direction, said Fisk President Hazel O'Leary, who expects the case to drag on as courts determine whether or not to relieve the college of its original obligations — an unfortunate fact, she notes, seeing as “the expense the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum has forced Fisk to incur… could have been committed to scholarships for our students.”

Read more at the Associated Press.