Later this month, Sotheby’s is selling the remaining lots from the A. Alfred Taubman collection, a group of Old Master works. To some, the sale may seem strange given that in life Taubman was a strong supporter of the Detroit Institute of Arts, where a wing named for him contains a gallery dedicated to European Old Masters. Several of the works in the sale were on long-term loan to the museum until recently.
This was, however, in keeping with Taubman’s “wish that the entire collection be sold to fund the foundation, to benefit, with his children’s guidance, institutions like the DIA in a meaningful way into the future,” says Christopher Tennyson, a family spokesman. He added that, while DIA did not receive any paintings in Taubman’s will, the museum would definitely receive some of the proceeds from the sale.
Taubman, who died in April 2015, may have thought the museum needed money more than it needed art. (DIA is currently in a fundraising crunch as it hurries to raise money for the “grand bargain” that privatised its collection, which was at risk of sale after the city filed for bankruptcy in 2013.) This is in keeping with his support in life, which was principally financial, says Eugene Gargaro, the 14-year chairman of the museum’s board, who was close with Taubman.
Detroit papers made much of the fact that eight paintings on loan to the museum were removed from display after his death, to be sold, but the DIA’s director Salvador Salort-Pons said Taubman’s artistic contributions to the museum should not be forgotten.
“Right before Alfred Taubman passed away, he was helping the DIA financially in the acquisition of a splendid drawing by Guercino. I asked him personally for this help,” he wrote in an email. “Mr Taubman was very generous during his life and donated works by Diego Rivera, Paul Klee, Ron Arad, Raymond Duchamp-Villon and Jean Baptiste Carpeaux. He also gave the DIA a number of ancient glass objects and helped in the acquisition of European sculpture and paintings.”
