Circuit Judge Alice Gray on Wednesday refused to dismiss the lawsuit originally filed against the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts and its controlling foundation and the city of Little Rock about how they allowed the historic Pike-Fletcher-Terry Mansion at 7th and Rock to fall into disrepair.
The mansion was given to the city as a cultural destination and the arts center later agreed to operate it as a decorative arts museum, with more than $1 million raised for that purpose. The endowment is gone. The arts center has washed its hand of responsibility and refuses to account for how the money was spent, rather than functioning as an ongoing endowment. The city has offered to chip in $500,000 toward repair work that could cost more than $1 million but otherwise hasn’t offered much in the way of specifics about what it thinks should happen to the property.
Heirs of the women who deeded the house to the city filed the suit o get an accounting of where the money went and, if necessary, to reclaim the property. They’ve established a private foundation to maintain it as a cultural center, as the donors intended, if ownership reverts to them.
Judge Gray dismissed the Museum of Fine Arts Foundation as a defendant because, she said, plaintiffs had failed to introduce sufficient facts on which relief could be granted. The foundation said it was not part of the agreement on operation of the mansion. As to the museum itself, she said plaintiffs had stated facts, viewed in their most favorable light, in which relief could be granted for breach of contract by the museum, but not sufficient facts to require an accounting of how money was spent.
The judge gave the plaintiffs until March 10 to file an amended complaint against any or all defendants. The claim for breach of contract against the museum remains and she gave the museum until March 24 for a response.
Legally responsibly or not, the Museum and the private foundation owe a better explanation of what happened to the money and why deterioration was allowed to continue for so long without action. They also could explain how a dining room table donated for a room in the decorative arts center turned up on a Tennessee auction site with a note it had been deaccessioned by the foundation and put out for sale to be used for acquisitions.
The arts center is undergoing a rebuilding project financed with a significant infusion of public tax money. How potential contributors and supporters view the institution in years to come inevitably will be influenced by its stewardship of this neglected property, so rich in Arkansas history.
A significant donation from the people of wealth who run the arts center could be useful in this regard.