The Detroit Institute of Arts and its backers around the country get a welcome legal opinion from Michigan's top government lawyer, Chad Livengood reports from Lansing in The Detroit News.
Atty. Gen. Bill Schuette says the Detroit Institute of Art’s cannot be sold to satisfy the city’s creditors in the event of a municipal bankruptcy.
In an official opinion released Thursday, Schuette said Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr cannot sell off all or parts of the DIA’s multibillion-dollar collection to help pay off the city’s $15.6 billion in debts and long-term liabilities.
“It is my opinion, therefore, that the art collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts is held by the City of Detroit in charitable trust for the people of Michigan, and no piece in the collection may thus be sold, conveyed, or transferred to satisfy city debts or obligations,” Schuette wrote.
But (and it's a big one), a local bankruptcy attorney tells Livengood that "federal law trumps state law” in a Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy.
