DIA to lose 8 Taubman-owned paintings

Going, going, gone.

If you want at least one final look at the eight paintings at the Detroit Institute of Arts that are owned by the late billionaire businessman and philanthropist A. Alfred Taubman, then you'd better hurry.

A family spokesman confirmed Friday that all of Taubman's paintings on long-term loan to the museum will soon be shipped to New York as part of Sotheby's blockbuster series of auctions that promise to fetch $500 million or more for Taubman's 500-plus piece art collection. DIA officials don't know exactly when the works will be removed from the walls, but all are due at Sotheby's by late October for a pre-auction exhibition.

The paintings that will be leaving the DIA are nearly all 17th-Century works, are mostly Italian and all are fine quality. However, none is by a household name and none is the sort of masterpiece that will fetch auction prices anywhere near the most valued pieces in Taubman's collection. The collection includes works by Picasso, de Kooning, Modigliani and Rothko that Sotheby's estimates are worth $20 million to $35 million each.

In addition to specifics surrounding Taubman's paintings at the DIA, more details are coming to light about the will of the innovative shopping mall developer, who died in April at age 91 with a net worth estimated at more than $3 billion. Family spokesman Christopher Tennyson said that Taubman did not leave the DIA any final bequest of art or a large legacy gift of cash for the museum's endowment.

However, Tennyson emphasized that the museum would continue to benefit from Taubman's philanthropy through his charitable foundation. Proceeds from the Sotheby's auctions will be used to pay estate taxes and bolster the foundation with what Tennyson said promises to be "hundreds of millions" of dollars.

The ultimate size of the foundation remains unknown, but some local observers have speculated it could reach $1 billion or more.

"The foundation will continue to focus on the things that Mr. Taubman loved so dear, and that's Detroit and certainly the DIA," said Tennyson. "The things that interested him interest his children, who are the trustees. That was the way that he wanted to continue his legacy of giving in the area.

"The paintings will be sold, but the foundation will be a significant resource for a number of institutions in the area, the DIA included."

During his life, Taubman's contributions to the DIA in money, art and leadership rank him among the most significant patrons in the museum's history. That he did not bequeath a large amount of cash or art to the museum should not be interpreted as a tragedy by museum supporters or as a sign of waning donor interest, said Jeffrey Abt, an art historian at Wayne State University.

Philanthropy at the level of a donor like Taubman is frequently multilayered and complicated.

"A donor like Taubman, though he might be deeply committed to the DIA, is unlikely to just give a museum a huge pile of cash and say do with it what you will," said Abt. "They're likely to make significant gifts over the years, but they're going to be monitoring the institution and see how it behaves. Otherwise, you don't have any accountability.

"I can picture Taubman being the kind of person who would be a lot more comfortable setting up a family foundation, having set an example of giving over the years but at the same time expecting a certain level of performance."

The circumstances now certainly demand that DIA leaders nurture their relationship with Taubman's children — Gayle Taubman Kalisman, Robert Taubman and William Taubman — who are foundation trustees.

DIA board chairman Gene Gargaro said he was optimistic. "Given Alfred's history of a love of Detroit and culture and my close acquaintance with him, I would certainly be enthusiastic about the future relationship between his family and the DIA," Gargaro said.

As of Friday morning in the pre-modern European galleries, including the A. Alfred Taubman Wing, there were eight pictures with labels identifying Taubman as the owner. Most are hanging in the Cracchiolo Gallery, just off the Woodward entrance to the museum. Five 17th-Century Italian works on religious themes — one of them by a Dutchman working in Italy — account for more than half the paintings on a single long wall. The artists are Matthias Stom, Caracciolo, Valentin de Boulogne, Pietro da Cortona and Guercino.

Elsewhere are three more Taubman-owned paintings: a charming 17th-Century Dutch interior called "Musical Company" by Hendrik Martensz Sorgh hanging in the third-floor suite of Dutch galleries; a large-scale history painting, "Rape of the Sabine Women," by Jacopo Ligozzi in a second-floor hallway, and a 16th-Century "Madonna and Child" by Beccafumi in the Medici Gallery.

"It's a very good ensemble of paintings," said Salvador Salort-Pons, curator and head of the European Art Department.

Salort-Pons, who developed a warm friendship with Taubman in recent years and helped advise him on several acquisitions, said the DIA and the community are thankful for the opportunity to have had Taubman's paintings on loan. He said the depth of the DIA's collection would allow the museum to continue telling the same stories.

Taubman's collection was encyclopedic, including treasures from antiquity to modern and contemporary masterpieces. Some museum supporters have expressed disappointment that the DIA will not be getting any of his art, which had the potential to fill in some some major gaps in the museum's collection and would have brought even greater depth to the already strong holdings. Still, David Klein, who owns galleries in Birmingham and Detroit, said Taubman's collection would not have transformed the fundamental character of the collection in the sense of allowing the museum to tell significant stories of art history that it can't do now.

"I think his collection would have added to the DIA, but I do not think it would have been transformative," said Klein. "However, his leadership and unbelievable philanthropic efforts did transform the DIA."

The DIA has lost out on other collections in recent decades that would have qualified as transformative, Klein said. For example, Lydia Winston Malbin, a Detroiter who died in 1989, amassed a major collection of early-20th-Century Italian futurism. It would have filled a huge hole in the DIA's collection. More than 40 of Malbin's works were donated to the Metropolitan Museum in New York and nearly 130 went up for sale at auction.

Another example is the world-class collection of art associated with the 1960s and '70s avant-garde movement known as Fluxus that was amassed by Detroit collectors and longtime DIA benefactors Gilbert and Lila Silverman. Their Fluxus collection was donated to the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2008.

"Those collections would have vastly strengthened the DIA and its ability to tell the story of 20th-Century art," Klein said.

Contact Mark Stryker: 313-222-6459 mstryker@freepress.com.