#Detroit art caught in bankruptcy battle - CBS News
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Detroit, which became the largest city to declare bankruptcy in U.S. history Thursday, is home to one of the most prestigious collections of #art in the world. And one of the options on the table to deal with its crippling debt is for all of that to be sold. But it’s not so simple.
To Rod Spencer, the Detroit Institute of Arts is priceless.
“The DIA is the history of Detroit, that’s what it means to me,” he said.
A man looks at an 1837 painting by Burnham Thomas Mickell at the Detroit Institute of Arts. CBS News
Spencer has been coming at least once a month for 25 years. But now, the city is talking about selling everything from works by Van Gogh, to Picasso, to the original Howdy Doody doll.
“Will it go to a private collection? Where would this go?” Spence said.
Detroit’s emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, said all assets must be on the table to appease the city’s creditors.
Experts consulted by the Detroit Free-Press valued all the works at $2.5 billion — around 10 percent of the city’s potential long-term debt of $20 billion.