Chapter 4 - The Seven-Year Exhibition Deal
The proposal came from Sterling Heritage Resorts, a luxury hospitality company developing private clubs in New York, Miami, Aspen, and London.
Sterling wanted a rotating exhibition of American modernist works inside its properties.
The foundation would receive substantial annual licensing and exhibition fees.
Sterling would cover transport, insurance, and security.
The money would support educational programming.
On paper, it was not ridiculous.
Anna read the draft twice.
Some parts were excellent.
Others worried her.
Fourteen of the requested works belonged to the Vale Collection Trust.
Several were fragile.
One had rarely traveled because its paint surface reacted badly to vibration.
Another had donor restrictions requiring public access for most of the year.
Sterling’s facilities would be accessible largely to members and hotel guests.
Anna said:
“This isn’t automatically a bad deal.”
Michael looked surprised.
“You’re not furious?”
“I’m furious nobody asked me.”
Different issue.
Then the economics.
Sterling would pay the foundation almost $3 million across seven years.
Useful.
But the agreement gave Sterling broad marketing rights to images of the art.
Anna wanted those provisions narrowed.
She also wanted independent conservation review.
Reasonable.
Then she discovered Evelyn had already announced the partnership privately to major donors.
No signed contract.
No Vale approval.
Why?
Evelyn had chaired the foundation’s advancement committee since David’s death.
She was brilliant at fundraising.
The Sterling partnership was supposed to finance her most ambitious project:
the Brooks Legacy Wing.
Not Brooks-Vale.
Brooks.
A new gallery, donor salon, archive room, and event terrace.
Estimated cost:
$18 million.
Anna stared at the renderings.
David’s portrait dominated the entrance.
Clara appeared on one historical panel as:
Founding Curatorial Adviser.
Anna whispered:
“That isn’t what she was.”
Michael stood beside her.
“No.”
Clara had been co-founder.
Then another document.
Evelyn had approved preliminary design language removing “Vale” from several public-facing spaces because research showed visitors associated the institution primarily with the Brooks family.
The legal organization name would stay.
The visible history would shrink further.
Anna finally understood.
The seven-year art deal and the Legacy Wing were part of one project.
Move Clara’s collection into luxury commercial spaces.
Use the revenue to construct a building bearing only David’s family name.
Then describe Clara as the adviser who helped:
him.
That was what Michael meant in the atrium.
Whose family this really is.
Not ownership.
Memory.
May you like
Anna’s family had been there before Evelyn ever arrived.
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