In response to your articles on the Valparaiso Brauer Museum deaccessioning controversy I would like to share some observations and ideas. Valparaiso University has existential needs and will not be viable if they can’t revive the size of their student body. At the same time despite Valparaiso having limited resources it has stakeholders that have managed to create a respected museum. Right now there is conflict between people most concerned with campus infrastructure needs and those who feel if three prize pieces are removed from the collection it will impair its attraction.
I would like to suggest that Valparaiso University keep physical ownership of the works but sell ownership by doing a limited syndication. A lot of your readers are probably receiving the promotional solicitations from Masterworks. They allow anyone to invest as little as $5,000 in art and buy into diverse work in $20 increments. This does not really distinguish the art investor or create much of a connection with the Soho art museum owned by Masterworks. Most of their collection is in deep storage like the Ark of the Covenant in Indiana Jones.
I think that instead there are people who might be sufficiently affluent and interested in making a more substantial investment in particular paintings. It may help if the partner in ownership of an work had a high quality hand painted reproduction. There are a few studios that offer that service but one is the Galerie Troubetzky in Paris whose clients include the Claude Monet Museum at Giverny. The foundation which owns and maintains the artist’s house is not able to afford the artist’s art but has a representative collection of reproductions.
A museum like Valparaiso’s Brauer could arrange to have stakeholders who would have a personal investment and commitment to maintaining prized art remain in place. For their money they would get part ownership of a work of original art, be treated as a V.I.P. at museum events and have a quality copy for home or business display. The fractional interest and limited edition hand painted reproduction could be sold as a unit though the marketed would be illiquid.
Richard Bond
Arlington, Massachusetts
