Richard Brauer, who turned 97 last month, has said since he found out that Valparaiso University officials wanted to sell three cornerstone paintings from the campus museum that bears his name that if the plan were to move forward, his name would come off the building.
Now, with a magistrate’s recent ruling that the university could amend a trust that provided the artwork to allow their sale, with proceeds going to fund dorm renovations for first-year students, Brauer is poised to act.
“I still hold out hope the President and the Board of Directors will back away from this very dangerous wager,” Brauer said in a statement to the Post-Tribune on Thursday. “If they do sell the paintings, however, I will ask to have (my) name removed from the museum, as I will be ashamed to have my name associated with this affair.”
Brauer has previously said he arrived at the university in 1961 to teach in the art department and, as part of his noninstructional duties, oversee what was then Valparaiso University Museum and Collections, housed in the basement of Moellering Library.
Georgia O’Keeffe’s “Rust Red Hills” was the second painting Brauer recommended Valparaiso University purchase for its budding art collection, and it was selling for $5,700 at the time.
The purchase, made in 1962, was one of many that propelled both the museum’s reputation and Brauer’s, culminating in 1995 with the opening of the Brauer Museum of Art. The Urschel family, which owns Urschel Laboratories, offered a $3 million gift to the university with the stipulation that the museum be named for Brauer and that the 17,000-square-foot facility also have a basement.
With the likely sale at auction of the O’Keeffe painting, as well as Frederic E. Church’s “Mountain Landscape” and “The Silver Vale and the Golden Gate” by Childe Hassam, Brauer said he is disappointed by the university’s actions.
He tried to intervene in the university’s petition to amend the Percy H. Sloan Trust to allow for the sale but withdrew his request late last month, the day before Porter Superior Court Magistrate Ana Osan’s ruling in support of the university because he risked being beset with an unknown amount in legal fees.
“I am disappointed the Indiana Attorney General raised no objections to Valparaiso University’s petition to amend Percy Sloan’s trust agreement so as (to) sell Valparaiso University’s three most valuable paintings to renovate freshman dormitories,” he told the Post-Tribune.
“I am disappointed there was no way to challenge any portion of the University’s petition in court without accepting serious financial risk. I am disappointed the court made a ruling that never questioned the University’s petition as we had hoped it would.”
Entrance of the Brauer Museum of Art on the Valparaiso University campus in Valparaiso, Indiana Friday February 10, 2023. (Andy Lavalley for the Post-Tribune)
According to appraisals received by the university, the fair market value of the O’Keeffe is estimated at $10.5 million to $15 million; the Hassam, between $1 million and $3.5 million; and the Church at $1 million to $3 million.
In addition to the dorm renovations, the funds from the sale of the artwork will be used to establish the Sloan Gallery of American Paintings to display other works from the Sloan collection.
“It was O.P. Kretzmann who accepted Percy Sloan’s collection and endowment, O.P. who inspired us to build a museum. Since that time an excellent museum has set us apart from our peers,” Brauer said. Kretzmann served as the university’s president for 28 years, starting in 1960, according to the Valparaiso University website.
Despite the controversy, which has garnered national attention, Brauer said he remains devoted to the university and remains hopeful that it will continue as a small school excellent in the liberal arts.
“We have the power to do that and it’s in our DNA. O.P. Kretzmann had a vision for this small school, to be a place where students learn to see life whole, and to experience it fully,” Brauer said. “We aren’t just teaching for a career here but teaching for life. If we devote ourselves to that mission, we’ll have students.”
alavalley@chicagotribune.com
