Hasta La Ideas

Back in January we told you about the court battle kicking off between Nashville’s Fisk University and the Georgia O’Keefe Museum in Sante Fe. Fisk wanted to sell a number of paintings O’Keefe had donated to them more than fifty years ago, while the artist’s Museum (and those responsible for her estate) were trying to get the sale turned down, saying that’s not what O’Keefe would have wanted. In the end, Fisk has won the war, as the Tennessee Court of Appeals has decided that the museum has no legal right to the artwork and the university can do with the pieces as they please (this following a local court’s earlier ruling that had blocked Fisk). This likely doesn’t mean that the university will be immediately putting the sale tags back on their O’Keefes, but instead trying to work something out that gets them badly-needed funds while keeping the work in circulation. We shall see. The Wall Street Journal‘s Law Blog has more information, should you want to read up more on the recent decision.