Lawsuits looming in an attempt to stop Brauer Museum artwork sale to fund dorm improvements
Court documents are expected to be filed in Porter County on Monday against Valparaiso University and its president, Jose Padilla, in an attempt to stop the sale of artwork from the university’s Brauer Museum of Art in violation of the trust that provided it to raise funds for the renovation of dorms for first-year students.
A request for declaratory and injunctive relief and a motion for a temporary restraining order are being filed on behalf of Richard Brauer, the museum’s first director and curator and for whom the museum is named, and Philipp Brockington, a retired Valparaiso University law school professor who is a benefactor to the museum.
“We are confident that Percy Sloan never envisioned using artwork proceeds to renovate dormitories and the only question the court will have to answer is whether Mr. Brockington and Mr. Brauer have sufficient standing to stop that from happening,” Portage attorney Patrick McEuen said in a phone interview.
Darron Farha, counsel for Valparaiso University, did not return a request for comment.
Also named in the suit is Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, who, according to the documents, “may assert jurisdiction to determine defendant’s compliance with the terms of the trust which endowed the University with the artworks, and the office is named to answer as to the determination of compliance.”
McEuen said in an email accompanying the documents that he plans to file the complaint Monday afternoon and then file the motion for the temporary restraining order “to attempt to obtain a 10-day Temporary Restraining Order and a hearing for a preliminary injunction.”
Padilla announced in a campus email on Feb. 8 the sale of three cornerstone works of art from the Brauer, though he didn’t name them, with proceeds going to renovate dorms for first-year students. The sale, he said in the email, was to reallocate “resources that are not core or critical to our educational mission and strategic plan.”
In a late February email to the Post-Tribune, a university spokesperson said officials explored other funding options but the deaccession of the artwork provides the necessary money to move forward with the renovations on a timeline that works best for the university.
“The projected cost of renovating Brandt Hall and Wehrenberg Hall is approximately $8 million. The decision to explore a potential sale of artwork was made after extensive and prayerful consideration, with the goal to have access to the proceeds quickly, to meet an urgent need. Other avenues would not allow the University to stay on track to have this project completed by Fall 2024,” Michael Fenton has said.
“We are proceeding carefully and evaluating many factors to best serve the needs of our students and Valparaiso’s future, and are continuing to conduct a comprehensive due diligence process.”
The plans, which opponents said are in violation of the restricted trust from Percy Sloan that provided the artwork, created an immediate outcry on campus, from students, a majority of the Faculty Senate, alumni and the four major art museum associations in North America, which said the museum could face sanctions or censure for going against standard museum protocol for deaccessioning artwork.
The paintings are Georgia O’Keeffe’s “Rust Red Hills, which Brauer acquired for the Percy H. Sloan Trust in 1962 for $5,700; Frederic E. Church’s “Mountain Landscape,” which, according to the documents, Sloan acquired at auction for $22 and was part of the original body of artworks in the trust donated to the university; and Childe Hassam’s “The Silver Veil and the Golden Gate,” which Brauer purchased for the trust in 1967 for $9,000.
Collectively, the paintings are now worth several million dollars.
Brauer has threatened to remove his name from the museum if the sale goes forward. He told the Post-Tribune in February that having the museum named for him was “the highest honor I’ve ever had.”
The university’s board voted in October and again in January to give Padilla the authority to sell the artwork to raise the money for the dorm renovations.
Brauer emailed Padilla Jan. 31, not long after the January board meeting, to express his concern about selling the artwork and noted if it went forward, it would break the Sloan agreement.
“For Valparaiso University’s Museum of Art to have my name has conferred a high honor on me, but with this sale it will wrongly reflect my approval of its utterly disgraceful, irreparably existentially diminishing, unethical and seemingly unnecessary, museum art collection sale actions!” Brauer wrote.
John Ruff, a senior research professor in the English department who has taken a public stand against the sale, said in an email he hopes “that the lawyers work this out.”
“I am sad to see Richard Brauer, the founding director and Phillip Brockington, one of the museum’s most generous donors, both retired VU faculty who have served VU wisely, tirelessly, and generously for decades, put in this position of having to bring suit against the university. But I am also inspired by their tenacity,” said Ruff, who has been and continues to be heavily involved with the museum and whose wife, Gloria, is its former registrar and associate curator.
The documents being filed Monday include Percy Sloan’s last will and testament, which outline his gift to the university.
“All the rest, residue and remainder of the said trust fund is to be devoted to the establishment, maintenance and expansion of a permanent memorial to my parents, Junius R. and Sara L. Spencer Sloan, which memorial is designed to serve and promote the cause of art education in both a practical and cultural way,” notes the document, dated Sept. 4, 1946.
The trust agreement, according to the documents being filed Monday, was created Dec. 4, 1953, after Sloan’s death, between a trustee for his estate, Louis P. Miller, and Valparaiso University.
The proposal to sell the artwork for renovating dorms, the documents note, is “as if the Percy H. Sloan donation is a mere ATM to be used irrespective of donor intent.”
The complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief argues that Brauer and Brockington both have standing to challenge the sale of the artwork because of Brauer’s longtime association with the museum and personal stake in it, and because of an endowment for the museum established by Brockington to “acquire, restore, and preserve” works of art and artifacts for the museum.
“Plaintiffs and the general public will forfeit the right and opportunity to maintain, preserve, and publicly view the works donated by, or acquired using the funds donated by, Percy H. Sloan, in contravention of the donor’s intent,” notes the motion for a temporary restraining order.
