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| Shared Passions |
Framing the Future
Regan Good
08/02/2004
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Norah laments the loss
of integral collections, but sees museum donation—assuming the museum wants the
collection—as the happy, egalitarian solution. “The taxes are really a question,
and this is why so many of the major collections end up at the auction houses.
Children cannot afford to keep all the pieces; they can usually afford to keep
only a few,” she says. “It’s sad. But if the collection can stay together only
by giving it to an institution, then that’s what you have to do.” Norman’s three
sons from a previous marriage have no interest in the collection. He suspects
his daughter, Amy, 33, who has a degree in art history and arts administration,
and who is a collector in her own right, might feel differently. However, Norah
notes, “She knows where the collection is going. We’ve explained it to
her.”
Not every collector is fortunate enough to have an eager taker.
Collectors Dave Williams, 72, and his wife, Reba, 68, were horrified by what
happened when they approached a New York museum they do not wish to name. “They
came back to us and said they didn’t want the collection, but they wondered if
we would be interested in funding a new cafeteria,” recalls Dave. “We were
furious.”
Reba and Dave, the former chairman of Alliance Capital Management,
who now runs White-Williams Holdings, a private equity fund, have been amassing
the world’s largest and most important collection of American prints for more
than 30 years. Their distinguished collection encompasses classic works from the
early 20th century by John Sloan, Childe Hassam and George Bellows, as well as
contemporary artists including Lucian Freud and Matt Mullican. In the spirit of
downsizing and weeding, they have recently been selling off some holdings at
auction, mostly valuable prints from Mexico by such artists as Frida Kahlo and
Diego Rivera. But the core of their collection—approximately 6,000 prints—will
one day need a permanent home.
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