Albright College to Auction 500+ Artworks Amid $20 Million Budget Crisis

Albright College in Pennsylvania is preparing to sell more than 500 works from its art collection to help plug a $20 million budget shortfall. The online auction, scheduled for July 16 at Pook & Pook Inc., features pieces by Bridget Riley, Jasper Johns, Romare Bearden, and Jacob Lawrence, alongside books and posters.

Vice President James Gaddy framed the sale as a financial necessity. “We needed to stop bleeding,” he said, emphasizing that the 2,300-piece collection was costly to maintain and “not core to our mission” as an educational institution. The gallery overhead reportedly exceeds $500,000 annually, surpassing the estimated $200,000 auction value.

The college has already laid off 20% of its workforce and sold off non-campus properties, including an apartment complex, in attempts to balance the books. Gaddy also cited plans to boost student enrollment from 1,100 back to pre-pandemic levels of 1,600 over five years.

The decision has drawn sharp criticism from donors. The daughters of Doris C. Freedman, whose namesake gallery housed much of the collection, denounced the sale as “shortsighted and counterproductive,” warning it would do little to offset the deficit. They pledged to explore alternatives should the auction proceed.

Albright joins a growing list of US colleges auctioning art collections amid financial strain, a trend linked to cuts in higher education funding. Pennsylvania alone has seen at least 10 institutions close in the past decade due to fiscal challenges, while mergers have become commonplace.

Experts note intense competition among Pennsylvania’s academic institutions for students and resources, with some unable to sustain their operations.

As Albright grapples with survival, the fate of its art collection remains a flashpoint between fiscal reality and cultural stewardship.

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