What?
Just how did an historical painting form the WH become available for sale? No word on that in the article.
Did Obama have a garage sale in 2014?
The owner of the painting is putting it up for auction. Nothing wrong with that.
The government has the option to bid on the painting, or to make an offer to the owner.
This is how the National Gallery acquired the only Leonardo Di Vinci painting in the Western Hemisphere in 1967. They bought it.
…It had been on loan from an anonymous collector before it was sold privately to Mary Burrichter and her husband, Bob Kierlin, founders of the Minnesota Marine Art Museum. The couple subsequently loaned the work to the museum with the intention of it becoming part of the permanent collection, according to a March 2015 article in the Star Tribune of Minneapolis.
In a statement Friday, the museum said “the painting was not intended to be permanently added to the MMAM’s collection, despite it being reported otherwise in a 2015 article that was published in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.”
Earlier, a spokeswoman at MMAM said the initial loan was finite and ended in March 2022, and was “part of our many rotating exhibitions of great art inspired by water.” She continued in an email, “The owner of this work has not shared with us their reasons to sell.”…