Supreme Court will not hear case on Fisk artwork

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Tennessee's Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal of a lower-court ruling that a New Mexico museum has no rights to an art collection at Fisk University in Nashville.

The financially struggling university had asked the Chancery Court in Nashville for permission to sell two of the works from its Stieglitz collection. The 101 works were donated to Fisk by the late painter Georgia O'Keeffe. The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, N.M., had filed suit.

The school later proposed a $30 million arrangement to share the collection with the Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, Ark.

Tennessee's Court of Appeals ruled in July the museum has no standing in court.

It is now up to the Chancery Court to decide whether Fisk can sell any of the work.

The Supreme Court issued its decision Monday.