Randolph College to Sell Paintings
Controversial Multimillion-Dollar Auction Tied to Finances

By Neely Tucker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Randolph College will auction off four paintings worth an estimated $32 million to $45 million to offset the school's ailing finances, the board of trustees decided late Monday, a controversial decision that led to the resignation of the school's art museum director yesterday.

School officials on Monday immediately removed the four paintings, including George Bellows's masterpiece, "Men of the Docks," from the Maier Museum of Art on its Lynchburg campus. Under police guard, the paintings were bubble-wrapped, placed in an unmarked van and driven away while police stopped traffic, witnesses said. The paintings were taken in the van to Christie's in New York, the famed auction house, for sale in November.

Karol Lawson, the director of the Maier, resigned yesterday, becoming the third school official to do so in protest of the school's plan to sell art to raise money. She did not return calls to her home yesterday.

"We had explored all the other options we could think of," said John E. Klein, the school's president, in a telephone interview. "The loss of the Bellows is a substantial loss, but the coherence of the collection was maintained."

The other works to be sold are: "A Peaceable Kingdom" (1840-1845) by Edward Hicks; "Through the Arroyo" by Ernest Martin Hennings (early 20th century); and Rufino Tamayo's "Troubador" (1945).

It was the latest in a series of tumultuous chapters at the 116-year-old college. Last year, the cash-strapped, 700-student school was put on warning by an accrediting agency for spending too much of its $140 million endowment. The school's administration began admitting men for the first time this fall as an attempt to boost enrollment, laid off staff and made it clear that it was willing to sell part of its $100 million art collection to shore up finances.

Lawsuits, protests and alumnae outrage followed each of the decisions, with the art issue drawing national interest. The Bellows piece, which dates to 1912, was obtained directly from the artist for $2,500 in 1920 as the cornerstone of a unique collection of American artists, and for decades hung in the school's library. The painting is estimated to be worth $25 million to $35 million. It was viewed by many alumnae as a sacrosanct part of the school's identity, and many were livid.

"Could they do this any more poorly?" said Anne Yastremski, who heads Preserve Educational Choice, an 1,100-member group of graduates, students and former faculty members that has filed legal challenges to the school's fundraising plans. "I don't think it possible. It's bizarre. It's just crazy."