College officials countered that there are no restrictions on these gifts and, as they are assets of the institution, the trustees may do with them as they see fit to maintain the financial well-being of the school.

Randolph trustees had first discussed the idea of deaccessioning artwork in 2005, but two joint-ownership plans went nowhere. In May, Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton, founder of Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas, came to tour the museum’s collection but did not make an offer. According to Karol Lawson, then director of the Maier Museum, Walton “didn’t want a piece of this” because she had been “burned” by legal challenges when she tried earlier in the year to buy a half share of a Georgia O’Keeffe collection from Fisk University. On October 1, the four paintings were taken away to be sold at Christie’s. Lawson resigned the next day. Laura Katzman, a professor of art history who also resigned, says, “I understand that small, private, specialized colleges are struggling to survive, but at what point are you cashing in your values to stay alive?”

Things could change in May, when the court injunction expires. But considering the bad publicity, the condemnation of the proposed sale by a raft of arts and museum organizations, and the spreading sense that deaccessioned works bring legal hassles, the paintings may not bring their best prices, even if they do eventually sell.