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Aug 30, 2008 12:16 pm US/Central
Can 'Minnehaha' Save Duluth?
DULUTH, Minn. (AP) ―
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The city is facing a $6.5 million dollar budget shortfall, and art and antique professionals have told the city the window is worth up to $3 million.
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Maybe, if the 115-year-old Tiffany window depicting a fictional American Indian princess draws the bids experts say it might.
The city is facing a $6.5 million budget shortfall, and art and antique professionals have told the city the window is worth up to $3 million. So the City Council voted Tuesday to put the stained-glass window up for sale.
Mayor Don Ness said selling the Tiffany window, which is currently on display at the Depot, is one of many painful decisions the city must make to climb out of its worst financial crisis in decades. Opponents say the sale is shortsighted and a loss of local heritage and valuable art that cannot be replaced.
"Christie's (auction house) has told us $1.5 million is very realistic," city purchasing agent Dennis Sears said.
Pittsburgh-based Industrial Appraisals put its value at $2.9 million. Sotheby's appraisers are coming to Duluth early next month.
The record price paid for a Tiffany window was $1.9 million in 2000, Christie's officials said. They have sold Tiffany lamps for up to $2.8 million.
"We've been told this piece has more kinds of glass in it (and) is more intricate (than the world-record piece)," Sears said. "But whether it's at that level, we won't know until it sells."
Jenny Sandberg, the Tiffany expert for Christie's who came to Duluth for the appraisal, said the market for Tiffany pieces is strong and growing -- even for a piece that's nearly 12 feet tall and 4 feet wide.
"We have a Tiffany sale about once each year and the one last December did very, very well," she said. "There's international interest in these pieces."
Most people involved with the sale want to find a way to keep it in Duluth.
"That's the goal, and I know local people have been approached," said Ken Buehler, executive director of the Depot.
But if an eligible local buyer can't be found, the window will be packed up in coming weeks and sent to a New York auction house, or possibly sold through an art broker, Sears said.
"We have to decide how we can best maximize the value that's there, whether it's selling to a museum or a local (Indian) tribe or a broker or at auction," he said.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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