Detroit Can Keep Its Art

Some people thought that Detroit, a city that is bankrupt, might have to sell off the valuable art in its art museum in order to help pay its debts. Detroit will not have to do this after all.

A bunch of foundations have agreed to pay $330 million—a pretty penny!—in order to allow Detroit to hang onto that art. From the New York Times:

A group including the Ford Foundation, the Kresge Foundation and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation have pledged to pool the money, which could essentially relieve the city-owned museum of its responsibility — estimated at millions of dollars — to help Detroit pay its debts in its federal bankruptcy case. As part of the plan, which negotiators have been working on quietly for months, the museum might be removed from city ownership and put under the control of the state.

Okay, great.

If you are a broke-ass city and you want foundations to give you a lot of money, you better have some nice paintings. Not just a bunch of poor people.

[Photo: AP. Here is a pretty great story about Detroit, btw.]