Peggy Guggenheim wanted 'Mural' back

IOWA CITY - Peggy Guggenheim did not want the University of Iowa to sell her gift, Jackson Pollock's famed “Mural,” and she in fact tried several times to get the painting back from the university, according to decades-old letters released Friday by UI officials.

The UI received the donated painting in 1951. Guggenheim in May 1963 wrote a letter to then-UI President Virgil Hancher, expressing her displeasure about a rumor the painting was to be sold at auction in London.

“If this is true, it is extremely unpleasant for me that you should sell my gift, when there are so many museums in the world who would be delighted to own this wonderful painting,” Guggenheim wrote. “If you no longer wish to have this mural in your university I must ask you to return it to me.”

Hancher wrote back, assuring Guggenheim the university did not have plans to sell “Mural,” and that officials were raising money for better gallery facilities.

But the correspondence released Friday - more than 170 pages of letters and memos from 1947 to 1974 - shows that in the spring and summer of 1962, UI officials did have numerous conversations about selling “Mural” to fund the purchase of more art. Frank Seiberling, head of the UI art department at the time, suggested an asking price of $180,000 in one letter to Christie's Auction House in New York. The most recent estimate puts the value of “Mural” at $140 million.

The letters also show UI officials were concerned Guggenheim might sue to get the painting back. Hancher consulted a UI law professor at one point to find out the UI's legal standing.

In September 1963, Seiberling wrote that Guggenheim “has already made two attempts to recover the large Pollock.” Their concern about the situation with Guggenheim even led UI officials to decline to loan “Mural” for a large Pollock exhibit in New York City in 1964 planned by the painter's widow.

The drama of the painting's backstory adds even more color to the discussion, as the debate about “Mural” and its value gains new life. A state legislator this month proposed forcing the UI to sell it so the money can be used for student scholarships, a bill under discussion at the Capitol.

UI officials oppose selling the painting, as does state Board of Regents President David Miles, who say it will do irreparable harm to the university's reputation and likely cause the UI Museum of Art to lose accreditation. But Regent Michael Gartner and numerous state legislators support the idea.

Sean O'Harrow, UI Museum of Art director, said Friday he has not heard from representatives of Guggenheim's estate about the Pollock discussion. But UI officials have questioned the legality of a sale of a gift against the donor's wishes.

Any legal fight could take years to settle, O'Harrow said.

“Mural” is on display at the Figge Art Museum in Davenport, having been displaced along with the rest of the UI collection by the 2008 flood. Plans for a replacement art museum are up in the air and it will be years before a new UI facility is built.