Posted August 20, 2004.

Court Says Providence Athenaeum Can Sell Its Audubon

The Providence Athenaeum will move forward with the auction of its double-elephant folio of John James Audubon’s Birds of America, thanks to an August 13 ruling by a Rhode Island Superior Court judge. The proposed sale was the focus of a lawsuit against the 251-year-old private library filed in August 2003 by a group of members and users.

Judge Michael Silverstein ruled there was no evidence the Athenaeum’s board subverted its mission or violated any bylaws with the planned sale. The trustees hoped the auction at Christie’s would raise up to $8 million to restore the library’s endowment and repair its 1838 Greek Revival building, the Providence Journal reported August 16.

Athenaeum Board President Betty Rawls Lang commented that the ruling “underscores the fact that the decision to sell the Audubon folio, although painful, was the result of a careful examination of the Athenaeum’s finances with an eye toward its long-term fiscal health.”

Posted August 20, 2004.