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NYPL Plans Art Sale to Bolster EndowmentThe New York Public Library has announced plans to sell 15 paintings and four busts from its art collection to raise money for the library’s endowment. The library will sell the artwork through Sotheby’s auction house, which estimates the 19 pieces will sell for as much as $75 million.NYPL President Paul LeClerc said in the April 11 New York Times that city and state cutbacks, the increasing cost of books and other materials, and the shrinking of the library’s endowment due to the stock market’s poor performance necessitated the sale. “It is crucial that we can provide a permanent source of revenue to purchase books so that we will be comprehensive for future scholars,” LeClerc said. The library’s book budget—$13 million this year—comes from revenue from the endowment, which shrunk from $530 million in 2000 to $426 million in 2002. “Had we been growing at our projected 8% a year, we would have had $18 million” for books, LeClerc noted. The library has sold its artwork before to raise money, selling some 450 pieces in the last 60 years, the Times noted. However, LeClerc said that this sale represents the best of the library’s collection. Among the pieces the library will sell are Asher B. Durand’s landscape Kindred Spirits and two portraits of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart. Posted April 15, 2005. |
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