Is Winslow Homer painting headed for sale?

• Winslow Homer%27s %22Milking Time%2C%22 one of the Delaware Art Museum%27s most treasured works%2C has disappeared from its collections database
• Museum officials would not confirm whether the 1875 oil painting of rural Americana is among the works to be sold over the next six months
• The Delaware Art Museum purchased %22Milking Time%22 in 1967 using a bank loan and donations from the Friends of Art

Winslow Homer's "Milking Time," one of the Delaware Art Museum's most treasured works, has disappeared from its wall and collections database, shortly after the museum announced that it would sell as many as four artworks to repay its construction debt and replenish its endowment.

Museum officials, including several trustees and curators, would not confirm whether the 1875 oil painting of rural Americana is among the works to be sold over the next six months. But museum and art experts say the change is suspicious and likely indicates the painting will be sold.

Board members have said they will not release the names of the works to be sold, explaining that it could lower their value on the market. Museum leaders have promised not to sell any work acquired as a gift or bequest.

Museum CEO Mike Miller would not explain when or why Homer's painting was removed from the online collection. He confirmed that it was included in the database when it launched on Feb. 20. So far, no works have been sold, he said early last week.

"You can make your own speculations," he said.

On Saturday, the painting of a milkmaid and a child gazing at cows in pasture was no longer hanging in the Wilmington museum's gallery. In its place was Thomas Wilmer Dewing's "Morning." A museum guard said "Milking Time" was removed from display last week. Miller could not be reached for immediate comment.

The museum also recently announced on its website that the American galleries, where "Milking Time" resided, would be closed for reinstallation for a month beginning in late October. (The museum recently reinstalled its contemporary gallery.)

Miller previously said the museum hoped to sell as many as four works by October to meet a deadline imposed by its bank to repay $19.8 million in debt from a 2005 facilities expansion. The trustees hope to raise a total of $30 million from the sale, funneling the rest into the museum's $25 million investment reserve to ensure long-term stability.

The only alternative, leaders said, was for the museum to shut down.

The museum purchased "Milking Time" in 1967 using a bank loan and donations from the Friends of Art, a group of community supporters, Miller said.

Danielle Rice, the museum's former executive director, said it's suspicious "that ['Milking Time'] is not listed, since it's one of their major masterpieces."

No state help

"Milking Time" and 14 other of the museum's "most treasured" works were featured in a pop-up art campaign in 2012, which brought high-quality reproductions to area restaurants, cultural institutions and beach attractions.

Other seminal works that were part of the campaign, including those by Edward Hoppe1r, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Howard Pyle, are all still listed on the museum's website.

In an essay published in The News Journal last week, Timothy Rub, president of the Association of Art Museum Directors, first alerted the public that Homer's painting was missing from the Delaware museum's website. In a later interview, Rub, who also heads the Philadelphia Museum of Art, said he had no personal knowledge of the specific works to be sold. The AAMD strongly opposed the board's decision last month.

The move, which violates national museum professional guidelines and the Delaware museum's own collections policy, could result in censure, sanctions and possible loss of accreditation.

So far, the state has declined to intervene. Within the last year, at least one trustee met with Gov. Jack Markell informally to discuss a state takeover of the beleaguered museum, Miller said. Markell refused, citing budgetary constraints, he added.

The governor recognizes that the arts improve quality of life across the state, said Markell spokesman Jonathon Dworkin. "Given the museum's financial condition and the fiscal challenges facing our state, this kind of public assistance was not possible."

Nationwide, state attorneys general occasionally have stepped in on the public's behalf when museums have tried to sell works in violation of donor restrictions.

Because the Delaware Art Museum is only selling works that the museum itself purchased, state Attorney General Beau Biden's office "is not able to second guess the judgment of the trustees," Matthew Lintner, the Attorney General's Fraud Division director, said in a statement.

"Two and two equals four"

Hanging in the balance is the landmark painting by Homer, widely regarded as one of the greatest American painters of the 19th century. Born in Boston in 1836, the former newspaper illustrator with no formal artistic training chronicled the Civil War for Harper's Weekly.

Homer created "Milking Time" while living on a farm in upstate New York. Lauded for his realistic portrayals of American life, he became consumed with themes of mortality and the violent forces of nature in his later years.

"Milking Time" is a "landmark painting for him," according to Kathleen Foster, who curated an exhibition of Homer's seascapes for the Philadelphia Museum of Art in late 2012. The Philadelphia museum owns four Homer works, including one of his most famous, "The Life Line."

A senior curator, Foster questioned the removal of "Milking Time" from the Delaware museum's website. The Philadelphia museum only removes work from its online catalogue when it is sold, irreparably damaged or deemed a fraud, she said.

"Two and two equals four," echoed Jeffrey Fuller, an accredited senior appraiser in Philadelphia who has worked with Delaware Art Museum donors. "Did they lose it? Was it stolen?"

Foster and Fuller could not estimate "Milking Time's" value, but they said it is extremely rare for a Homer piece of that caliber to leave a museum.

"Every collector says, 'Is this going to be the last great Homer on the market?'" Foster said. "Everybody who can write a big check for a painting is going to pay attention to it."

Other museums, she said, likely won't be able to afford it. In 1998, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates reportedly paid more than $30 million for Homer's 1885 painting "Lost on the Grand Banks," considered a record price for such a piece.

Museums typically command higher prices by selling works quietly through private deals rather than through public auction, according to Fuller. Often, the purchase price is never made public.

"To maximize your profit, you sell it to the person who you know has to have it," he said.

Yet he encouraged the Delaware museum to sell a larger number of lesser works kept in storage and hold on to the most valuable ones.

"I guess it's just an easy way out," he said.

In the meantime, a poster of "Milking Time" is available for $15 at the museum gift shop.

'A black mark'

Several community members have urged greater transparency from the museum board about the sale of art. Museums routinely notify the public about specific art to be sold prior to sale, a process known as deaccessioning. Deaccessioning is regularly used by museums to acquire new pieces.

Post-recession, however, a handful of museums have resorted to selling art to pay their bills.

"A lot of us in the community, myself included, were blindsided by this," said Dick Poole, an avid art collector and former non-trustee member of the Delaware museum's collections committee.

Poole, who recently auctioned off more than 100 pieces in his collection to benefit the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity, grew up near the art museum and recalls being enthralled by Pyle's swashbucklers. Today, if he had a museum-quality piece to donate to the Delaware museum, he wouldn't.

"It's a black mark on the state," he said of the board's decision to sell art. "That is one of the very best paintings of one of the very best artists that the Delaware Art Museum owns."

"We inherited this mess, we didn't cause it," responded board chairman and longtime donor Gerret Copeland. "What we're trying to do now is get rid of this damocles hanging over us."

Copeland said he did not know the names of the works to be sold because he was traveling out of the country last month. He said closing the museum would have ripple effects across area arts organizations.

Poole, Rice and others have questioned whether the museum was really in danger of shuttering.

Poole noted the museum has a larger endowment than many cultural institutions statewide. The Delaware Theatre Company and the Delaware Symphony Orchestra, both of which have smaller operating budgets, were hobbled but survived after virtually eliminating their endowments.

Pressure to sell

Shortly after Rice took the helm of the museum in 2005, she said trustees began pressuring her to sell art to retire the construction debt. Rice threatened to resign and tried to educate the trustees about alternatives, she said.

"You just basically keep knocking on doors," she said. "You can always get a mortgage."

At one point, she said, at least one foundation urged the museum to merge with the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts. That conversation went nowhere, she said, because the DCCA was hamstrung by its own debt.

"I feel like a total failure," Rice said recently, explaining that she wished she had made a better case to local politicians and donors to prevent the museum from selling masterpieces.

When Rice left in August to take a job directing a new museum leadership program at Drexel University, she said the museum had three valid offers from banks to restructure the debt. At least two of the offers "the trustees never fully explored," she said.

Miller disputed that claim. "They were not proposals," he said. "They were outlines and all [the banks] decided that they didn't want to get involved."

The museum could not declare bankruptcy, he added, because then its creditor, Wells Fargo, could seize its endowment.

"When [Rice] left, we had nothing," he said.

A public loss

Trustees grappled with the decision for months and exhausted every other alternative, according to Miller.

One trustee, Joan Sharp, resigned during the process at the end of last year. Reached recently, Sharp said she resigned primarily because of personal and work commitments, adding that she was "completely neutral on the art sale."

The Delaware museum is now working with Christie's and Sotheby's to sell the art, Miller said. He declined to say whether it would be through public auction or a private sale.

Auction companies can earn as much as $1 million in commission on a $5 million sale, said Fuller, adding that public auctions are heavily marketed by auction companies as soon as contracts are signed. The lengthy process involves shipping works to various cities to be viewed by buyers, and even allowing some to test-drive the pieces on their walls.

Andrew Wyeth's 1973 painting "Ericksons," for instance, sold at public auction in 2007 for a record $10.3 million, Fuller said.

Wyeth's son, artist Jamie Wyeth, reiterated last week that he has not heard that the Delaware museum plans to sell a work by his father or his grandfather, N.C.

Foster characterized the secretive sale as "unusual."

"It's impossible for people to really get a grip on the impact of the sale," she said.

"It's not just the Delaware Art Museum that is losing it," she continued. "The public is losing it."

Reporter Maureen Milford contributed to this report.

Contact Margie Fishman at (302) 324-2882 or mfishman@delawareonline.com.

"Milking Time" by Winslow Homer

• 1875, oil on canvas, 24 x 38¼ inches

• The Delaware Art Museum purchased "Milking Time" in 1967 using a bank loan and donations from the Friends of Art.

• Experts interviewed could not estimate the value of "Milking Time."

• Homer, born in 1836, is regarded as one of the greatest American painters of the 19th century. He created "Milking Time" while living on a farm in upstate New York. The former newspaper illustrator with no formal artistic training chronicled the Civil War for Harper's Weekly. Lauded for his realistic portrayals of American life, he became consumed with themes of mortality and the violent forces of nature in his later years.