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Fresno museum set to close

By Intellectual Property Law, Esq.

"Absent a miracle," it looks like the Fresno Metropolitan Museum is about to shut its doors. The Fresno Bee has the story here.

I found this part interesting. Apparently, a limited liability company called Friends of The Met was formed to raise money for the museum. If the museum were to close, the LLC "would be repaid at least in part by the sale of the museum's assets, including its art collection" (my emphasis).

So let me get this straight. A struggling museum cannot sell art to keep from closing. That would be awful, a violation of the public trust, repulsive, Stalinesque, you know the rest.

But if it closes, what happens to the art?

It's sold, to pay off creditors of the museum.

Does that really make sense to anyone?

Full post as published by The Art Law Blog on December 16, 2009 (boomark / email).