The George A. Lucas art collection of the Maryland Institute, held in the Baltimore Museum of Art and Walters Art Gallery, is part of Baltimore's patrimony. To strip the paintings from the walls and the prints from the vaults would deprive Baltimore's posterity of a birthright.
George A. Lucas willed his collection to Henry Walters, who gave it in 1910 to the Maryland Institute, of which Mr. Lucas' father had been a founder. Mr. Walters' attorney's letter said the purpose was "to serve as a continuing example and incentive to earnest ambitious effort of art students in your care." And also that Mr. Lucas "desired to have [the art] placed in your charge to be dedicated to sincere art education in his native city." The first quote may imply a college, the second a museum.
The Maryland Institute, finding the collection burdensome and of declining instructional use, lent it in 1933 to the BMA, which has cared for it extremely well, at city taxpayer expense. A few pieces went to the Walters in 1944.
Trustees of the Maryland Institute are running an eminent college on a meager endowment, which they are obligated to enlarge, using every asset. The museums feel they have already invested enough tender loving care and expense to have bought the stuff, or at least nullified the owner's right to alienate it. The Maryland Institute, they imply, is not merely a national college but also a Baltimore cultural institution.
The Maryland Institute, College of Art trustees last raised the matter in 1989, with a dead-end result, and are now seeking Circuit Court judgment that they have the legal right to sell the collection for their endowment.
That question is for the courts to decide. When they have, the institutions can and should discuss their conflicting interests in a constructive way. There is not going to be an instant fire sale. The institute has not initiated a sale or said what it might sell under what conditions, or what it would hope to realize.
Supporters of arts and education in Baltimore know the needs of these institutions are reasonable and just, even when in conflict. The imperative is not to choose sides, but to reconcile interests. Should the Maryland Institute win the lawsuit, a joint fund-raising effort with common purpose would be in order.
Baltimore needs the Lucas Collection to remain here in the good hands to which it has been long entrusted. And Baltimore needs a strong Maryland Institute to run one of the nation's best art schools. The American art world needs both of these things. There is time, and there should be the good will, to work this out for the benefit of art and Baltimore.