Viewing page 22 of 28

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

Thurs, May 13 1976    

GORKY

Bellevue to Sell Valuable Art Legacy
By DAVID BIRD

Bellevue Hospital, deciding to trade sentiment for cash, is going to sell part of its inheritance — a painting by Arshile Gorky called "Soft Night," which the hospital hopes will bring as much as $150,000.

"We're sad at the loss of this premier painting by one of America's foremost artists, but we've got to raise every penny we can for patient care," said Dr. John L. S. Holloman Jr., president of the city's Health and Hospitals Corporations, which controls Bellevue as well as the other 17 municipal hospitals.

While there is no question that Bellevue will benefit from the sale, there are questions about why the hospital was given the painting in the first place.

Polio Story Disputed

Some friends and relatives of Ruth Wagreen Franklin, who gave the painting to Bellevue in her will, said she had done so because of the treatment given by the hospital to her two sons when they were polio victims.

A statement came from the Health and Hospitals Corporation said only that Mrs. Franklin had "developed and attachment to Bellevue after her two children were treated here two decades ago."

The two sons, however—children of and earlier marriage—apparently were nowhere near Bellevue when they contracted polio. Both—Peter and Justin Dart—are now living in the West.

Peter Dart, who is now 43 years old and the head of a mining equipment company in Boulder, Colo., said he was in a military hospital when he came down with polio at the age of 20. His brother, who now lives in Kirkland, Wash., said he was stricken in California.

Peter Dart said he thought his mother's bequest to Bellevue had been made because "she was very fond of the New York area."

"She felt it was the cultural center of New York and the world, and she felt that Bellevue was symbolic of New York and something well worth support," he explained.

Work to be Auctioned

The painting will be auctioned May 27 at Sotheby Parke Bernet. A Sotheby spokesman said it was one of the four or five outstanding paintings among 60 in its spring auction entitled "Important Post-War and Contemporary Art."

[[image]]
Arshile Gorky's "Soft Night"
1947 Signed & dated 38x50

The auction house has estimated the painting's value at $120,000 to $150,000. It had been part of Mrs. Franklin's collection of contemporary paintings in her home in Greenwich, Conn.

Her husband, John C. Franklin, said yesterday that the remainder of her collection was to go to Bellevue on his death.

"It was her collection," Mr. Franklin said. "There are a dozen or so paintings, including a Clifford Still. I don't know how much they're worth. I just don't know how much these things go for."

The Gorky painting and others go specifically to Bellevue's pediatrics units, to which Mrs. Franklin had made other cash gifts during her lifetime.