Huntington's legacy is under attack - 25 centuries of Spainish coins
Arizona Coin Collector
25 centuries and are worth $35 million.
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FROM:
http://www.newstimes.com/ci_11545713
Huntington's legacy is under attack
Newstimes
Updated: 01/24/2009 03:33:15 PM EST
Archer Huntington of Redding, a well-known
philanthropist, was so interested in reading
about Spanish Gypsies that he booked passage
to Spain and started collecting artworks
and historic coins.
He bought land in New York City on 155th Street
in Spanish Harlem and became the founder of the
Hispanic Society of America there in 1908.
The coins were minted in Spain during the last
25 centuries and are worth $35 million. He gave
them to the Hispanic Society of America, and
they remained there until 1945 when he
transferred them to the American Numismatic
Society (Archer was a former president) in what
was described as a "permanent" loan.
Now the Hispanic Society of America is litigating
to regain the coins but for the purpose of
selling them, not for display. Their board of
trustees adopted a January 2008 resolution to
"de-accession" the collection -- museum
terminology for "selling off."
Recently, the Danbury Museum (formerly
Scott-Fanton Museum before they were respectfully
dumped even though they were the founders and
funders) sold a painting for thousands of dollars.
The concept of a museum is that you can go into
one place and confront the surviving products of
distant cultures and the finest things that have
ever been made. That does not mean de-access or
sell off.
After Archer died, the Hispanic Society of America
has been accused of degentrification. The museum
treasures sale is led by recent trustee chairman
Frank Lorenzo, who has been described as a
"vulture investor" who also helped dismantle and
bankrupt Eastern Airlines.
Archer and his wife, sculptor Ann Huntington, are
spinning in their New York City mausoleum.
C. Rodney Dow
..