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Here Are 11 Masterpieces Detroit May Have To Sell To Ease Its Debt Problem

Rob Wile   

Here Are 11 Masterpieces Detroit May Have To Sell To Ease Its Debt Problem

Van Gogh Self Portrait with Straw Hat

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>Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr is trying to come up with ways to plug the city's estimated $18.5 billion debt problem.

So this week, he announced he had engaged Christie's to appraise the city's art collection.

The move has generated controversy — both from those who say the collection should remain untouchable, and from camps who believe the city should never have owned the works in the first place.

Unusual among major cities, Detroit owns the entire collection at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

The Detroit Free Press reached out to art dealers in May to provide a rough estimate of the collection's overall value. The group came up with a final tally of at least $2.5 billion.

We wanted to dig into the collection to get a better sense of what the city could end up losing.

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