Posted on 06/18/2017 11:52:14 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
A noted art collector and philanthropist has sold a major painting for an eye-popping $165 million to raise money for criminal justice reform.
Agnes Gund sold Roy Lichtenstein's 1962 work Masterpiece, reportedly to billionaire hedge fund manager and art collector Steve Cohen. The sale apparently took place months ago; an art industry newsletter reported on the transaction in January, but Gund would not confirm it.
On Monday, The New York Times confirmed that the sale was real, noting that the painting becomes one of the 15 most expensive pieces of art known to have been sold. And the newspaper revealed that Gund sold the piece "for a specific purpose: to create a fund that supports criminal justice reform and seeks to reduce mass incarceration in the United States."
Gund is urging other wealthy art collectors to sell prized pieces to support the effort, NPR's Elizabeth Blair reports.
"Gund says $100 million from that sale will go to the new Art For Justice Fund, described as a 'movement to end mass incarceration,' " Elizabeth says. "Other collectors have also promised gifts of art or donations to the fund, which is being managed by Rockefeller Philanthropy Partners and the Ford Foundation.
"According to a statement, the fund will support efforts to cut the prison population and strengthen programs to help people when they leave prison," Elizabeth reports.
The Times, which interviewed Gund, described what inspired the collector to start the initiative:
"Six of Ms. Gund's 12 grandchildren are African-American, and she has worried about their future as they've matured, particularly in light of shootings of black teenagers like Trayvon Martin in Florida.
" 'I have always had an extreme sensitivity to inequality,' Ms. Gund said.
"She added that she was also deeply affected by Michelle Alexander's 2010 book, 'The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness,' and by Ava DuVernay's 2016 documentary, '13th,' about African-Americans in the prison system."
"The criminal justice system in its current state — particularly in its treatment of people of color — is unfair and unjust," Gund said in a statement from the Ford Foundation.
The fund will issue grants to groups and individuals working on issues of criminal justice reform.
What an idiot
Some the convicts want to be her pals
Some the convicts want to be her pals
$165 million isn’t going to fund criminal justice system reform. That’s not even a drop in the bucket. Not even condensation from the night before.
There’s too much money in the criminal justice system and it will ALWAYS exist. Too many “important” people would be put out of jobs for one. Not to mention all the funding, and corporations that cater to prisons, jails, and taxes collected from fines. If crime were to stop the lawyers and cops would criminalize other things, just to keep their paychecks flowing. Guaranteed.
None of that is why Afrocan American mails are in prison
If this money goes to far-left liberal and communist organizations such as the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the Brennan Center at NYU? (a new Marxist rathole), the National Lawyers Guild, John Jay College, Rutgers Law School and other Marxist-centers for training leftist lawyers, then $100 Million is going to do a lot of damage to our justice system and employ hundreds or thousands of budding Marxists and anti-American activities.
Um, wrong postmark?
yeah there should be “reform” — violent criminals should serve longer sentences, and murderers should be executed within 2 years, for a start....
To reduce the prison population:
1) Change the culture that leads young kids to criminality. Quash those who call people “Uncle Toms” or dissuade kids from leading productive lives by saying they are “acting too white” when they try to succeed.
2) Make the prisons harsher. Give inmates a real incentive to not want to repeat the experience.
3) Stop the revolving door policies. The three strikes laws were a response to those policies; people really do want to see criminals kept off the streets.
Reducing the prison population is a complex issue, one that will *not* be solved by coddling prisoners and avoiding throwing criminals into prison in the first place.
When I was a kid I paid 10¢, for books full of pictures like that.
She needs to spend a little time in the ghetto. Then she can answer the question: where are the white guy who also need to be arrested?
How much of that $165 million will be stolen by the criminals who will administer its use?
A Cartoon for $165 Million?? What a joke. Maybe they can pay that for a jar of Urine Art next.
This woman needs a dose of the real world, starting with Richie Pryor.
Pryor on Arizona Penitentiary
https://youtu.be/R7DhFhzkjcA
What are you blathering about
If only I had been the smart
Sorry for the snarky comment...you played it very well
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