Lynn Villency Cohen: Justice Failed the Berkshire Community

Lynn Villency Cohen, The Berkshire Eagle
April 8, 2018

STOCKBRIDGE  – When Justice Lowy peered down from his high court seat at the hearing to address briefs filed by plaintiffs’ attorneys opposed to deaccessioning the art at the Berkshire Museum, his skepticism over management of the museum could not go unnoticed. “Why is there a $1.2 million (yearly) deficit? What’s been going on here?”, a seemingly dismayed Justice Lowy asked.

After a 10-month legal drama, it has been his job to render final judgment on whether an agreement to sell in excess of $55 million worth of art should move forward, put forth by the Massachusetts attorney general and the Berkshire Museum. He issued that decision in a terse five page judgment with a full blessing of the agreement and sale of the entire cache of publicly held art works. To those who hoped he would modify this very lopsided agreement that had been hashed out by the attorney general in a head-spinning 11th hour turn around from strong legal adversary to united ally, it is a time of great disappointment.