Detroit Council Backs Shifting Museum’s Holdings to Trust

The Detroit City Council gave unanimous approval Thursday to a plan to transfer city-owned assets at the Detroit Institute of Arts to a charitable trust, the Detroit Free Press writes.

The move is part of the so-called grand bargain to help reduce cuts in municipal pensions while shielding the art museum’s collection from being sold to satisfy creditors in the city’s bankruptcy case.

Turning over the institute’s holdings to a nonprofit entity is a key provision of the $816-million deal, more than half of which would be funded by private foundations and the museum itself. Some creditors are seeking a court order to force Detroit to consider selling prized works to pay down its multibillion-dollar debt.

“Protecting the art is huge,” Councilman Scott Benson said. “The fact that the city is losing assets doesn’t excite me, but we also have to look at the bigger picture with this.”