Painting that N.J. museum auctioned amid COVID losses nets nearly $1M
June 9, 2021 | In the PressFrom NJ.com (https://www.nj.com/essex/2021/06/painting-that-nj-museum-auctioned-amid-covid-losses-nets-nearly-1m.html)
A painting the Newark Museum of Art auctioned off last month to help curb a $6 million revenue loss during the pandemic will soon be displayed in Philadelphia.
“The Arch of Nero” painting by Thomas Cole will be displayed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art after the Thomas H. and Diane DeMell Jacobsen PhD Foundation purchased it for $988,000. The foundation loaned it to the museum in Pennsylvania, where it will be on view starting July 2.
“We are thrilled to have this great painting in our galleries,” said Kathleen A. Foster, the museum’s Robert L. McNeil Jr. Senior Curator of American Art, “and we are grateful to the Jacobsen Foundation for ensuring that it will continue to be seen by the public for years to come.”
The Association of Art Museum Directors eased regulations at the start of the pandemic to allow museums to use proceeds from the sale of art for collection care costs, including salaries. It’s caused a stir among those in the art world as pieces have been sold at the Newark Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
A group of scholars and curators called on the Newark Museum of Art to reconsider selling the piece. William Coleman, a curator who used to work at the museum in Newark, said the piece was purchased in the 1950s and has rarely been put in storage.
Newark Museum of Art Director and CEO Linda Harrison said the paintings that were selected to be auctioned off were chosen for different reasons, including redundancy. The decision to auction off the Cole was also made at a time when the museum was trying to ensure that as many voices were represented in its collections, the director explained.
“The Arch of Nero” is a 19th-century painting that depicts a now-lost structure in Italy that was dedicated to the Roman emperor, Nero. The piece could be interpreted as a reflection on the fall of the Roman Empire and as a critique on the moral direction in the United States just before the Civil War.
The museum in Newark planned to put up 17 pieces of artwork for auction last month, including work by Georgia O’Keeffe and Thomas Moran. The O’Keeffe sold for $1,169,500.
The Newark Museum of Art reopened earlier this month after being closed since March 2020. “The Arch of Nero” will be displayed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art with works by Cole’s Hudson River School peers.
