A group of creditors took the first formal legal filing to a Michigan bankruptcy court advocating for an expedited process in evaluating and selling the artworks held by the Detroit Institute of Arts,the Detroit Free Press reported.
Following the Motor City’s announcement of bankruptcy, the city’s emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, contacted Christie’s auction house in order to glean the value of the work in the museum. But, in the wake of a record-breaking auction at Christie's, the city’s largest creditors in the chapter 9-bankruptcy case allege the current process of evaluation of the artwork does not suit the speed nor transparency at which Detroit’s creditors need be remunerated.
In a legal document filed November 26, the group of creditors say that Detroit’s inability to raise public funds rests in extraordinary circumstances, now that the city has proven unable to sustain itself in a typical manner. The document reads, in part:
The creditors are searching for a speculated billion-dollar-plus valuation of the DIA’s holdings. Art critics have waffled on the idea of liquidating Detroit’s art holdings, including the New Yorker’s Peter Schjeldahl. Though it is a frighteningly sad prospect, the “best interest of the creditors” seems to push this option for fiscal recovery into reality.
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[via Detroit Free Press]
