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As Iowa politicians and educators have debated a legislator's proposal that the University of Iowa sell Jackson Pollock's "Mural" for $140 million, many have discussed what the wishes would have been of Peggy Guggenheim, the pioneer collector of modern art who donated the painting in 1951. Guggenheim died in 1979, but it turns out that she weighed in against the idea of Iowa ever selling her gift. In 1963, she heard a rumor that the university was considering a sale, and she wrote to the university's president stating that, if the university no longer wanted to hold on to "Mural," she wanted it back, to display at another museum, The Des Moines Register reported.
The letter -- and the university's reply, assuring Guggenheim that there were no plans to sell the painting -- may be found on the website Scribd, which also features letters suggesting that the university did explore whether Guggenheim's gift was conditional on the university holding on to the painting. (The advice the university received suggested the answer was ambiguous.)
