Museums: Corporate Appreciation

Color most small museums green with envy when it comes to purchasing costly masterpieces. With gaping holes in their collections, they are long on aspirations, short on funds. Such was the case when the Milwaukee Art Center’s director, Tracy Atkinson, found a fine Gustave Courbet portrait. Milwaukee had nothing by the early 19th century French realist, but the not unreasonable price tag in New York’s Knoedler Gallery read $55,000.

It was goodbye to a good buy until an enterprising Milwaukee attorney, Roger Boerner, 37, formed a corporation called Art Appreciation, Inc., with 14 other enthusiasts. Pooling their shares, the corporation bought the Courbet to hold it until the museum can pay for it. Should the painting increase in its market value in the interim, the difference can also be deducted from income tax as a charitable contribution. Meanwhile, the painting will hang in the museum. Except, of course, for the times that shareholders in Art Appreciation, Inc., see fit to borrow it in turn in order to appreciate their masterpiece in their own living rooms.