Two weeks ago in these pages we wrote about a court drama embroiling the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, Mass. The museum is being sued to stop it from selling 40 works of art from its collection. The sale is intended to finance what the museum’s board of trustees calls its “New Vision,” a plan to modernize the stately institution by installing bright screens and other ticky-tacky tech. Among the works on the block are two paintings by—and donated to the museum by—Norman Rockwell. Those two alone could bring the museum some $50 million in mad money.
But not so fast. The Scrapbook is pleased to report that the Massachusetts Appeals Court halted the auction at the eleventh hour. “The balance of the risk of irreparable harm,” the court reasoned, “weighs in favor of the petitioner.” Once the bidding begins, after all, it will be too late to get the paintings back and they may never be viewed by the public again.
It may only be a temporary reprieve. The sale will go forward if the state’s attorney general isn’t able to persuade the appeals court to make the injunction permanent. Arguments may happen in December.
