More than three dozen pieces from the Prendergast Library’s art collection (some shown above) was deaccessioned in 2017 by the library board and sold at auction in an effort to held address financial challenges facing the library. Developer Arnold Duke purchased seven of the pieces and has loaned them to the Fenton History Center for one year. They will be put on display in the summer of 2018.
JAMESTOWN – Seven pieces of artwork that were recently sold at auction by the James Prendergast Library have found a temporary home at the Fenton History Center.
According to Noah Goodling, Fenton executive director, developer Arnold Duke – who owns property in downtown Jamestown including both the former Key Bank and the former Marine Midland Bank, both on N. Main Street – recently purchased seven of the Prendergast paintings and has agreed to loan them to the Fenton for one year.
Goodling tells WRFA that the Fenton and Duke completed the loan paperwork and transferred the paintings on Thursday, although they aren’t yet publicly available for viewing just yet.
“We plan to have them hung up within the next couple weeks, and incorporate them into a temporary exhibit about the Prendergast family which should open in late June or early July,” Goodling said via email to WRFA.
After several years of discussion, the Prendergast library board of trustees made the decision in 2017 to sell more than three dozen classic art paintings it had in its possession, valued at $1.18 million, due to financial challenges.
The seven paintings that will be on display at the Fenton later this year include:
- Jean Paul Clays – Ostende
- Georges Jean Marie Haquette – The Fisherman’s Wife
- Leo Hermann – Painting a Madonna
- Adolf Humborg – Amusing News
- Ambrose Macneil – Sunrise on the Isle of Mull
- Georg Oeder – German Forest Interior
- Frederick Ballard Williams – In a French Garden
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