Monday, February 20, 2012
UC Berkeley Mistakenly Sells Million-Dollar Artwork for $150
Art / Education Kathleen Richards — Mon, Feb 20, 2012 at 3:56 PM
A 22-foot-long carved wood panel by African-American sculptor Sargent Johnson, valued at an estimated $1 million, was mistakenly sold by UC Berkeley for a paltry $150 (plus tax), reports The New York Times. According to the article, the redwood relief was initially designed to cover organ pipes at the old California School for the Deaf and Blind. When the school closed in 1980, it was transferred to a university storage place, but when it reopened three years later, it never made it back to the building (another panel, however, was returned). Then, in 2009, the university cleared out its storage and transferred the artwork to its surplus store, where it was sold to an individual for $150 plus tax. Eventually, it made its way to the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, in San Marino, Calif., where it will now be displayed. Although the work was commissioned by the Works Progress Administration and thus under federal jurisdiction, there was apparently a loophole: the federal government does not retain ownership of WPA-commissioned art affixed to non-federal buildings.
Harvey Smith, president of the National New Deal Preservation Association, described UC Berkeley's handling of the situation as “amazing incompetence.”
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Just another mistake in judgement by UC Chancellor Birgeneau Provost Breslauer. In spite of eligibility University of California Berkeley Chancellor Birgeneau ($450.000 salary), Provost Breslauer ($306,000 salary) shed thousands of instate applicants. Qualified instate applicants to public Cal. are replaced by a $50,600 payment from born abroad affluent foreign and affluent out of state students. And, Birgeneau subsidizes affluent foreign and affluent out of state tuition in the guise of diversity while he doubles instate tuition/fees.
UC Berkeley fall admit rate for Californians drops to record low 18%. Birgeneau/Breslauer accept affluent $50,600 foreign students and displace qualified instate Californians (When depreciation of tax funded assets are included (as they should be), out of state and foreign tuition is more than $100,000 and does NOT subsidize instate tuition). Going to Cal. is now more expensive than Harvard, Yale.
A shocking picture of inept UC Berkeley senior management. With the recommendations of Cal. Chancellor Birgeneau ($450,000 salary), Provost George Breslauer ($306,000 salary) allowed campus police to use excessive force - rammed baton jabs - on students protesting Birgeneau‘s doubling of instate tuition. Resignation of Birgeneau is necessary, but not sufficient, fire Breslauer. Email your opinion; UC Board of Regents marsha.kelman@ucop.edu
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