In November, the Detroit Institute of Art came up with a way for the Motor City to keep its beloved collection—which was otherwise going to be auctioned off, piece-meal, in the fallout of the city’s 2013 bankruptcy. Ironically, the only works not up for grabs were Diego Rivera’s Detroit Industry frescoes depicting the city’s boom years: strong, somber, masculine factory workers forging steel, fitting pipes, each mammoth mural espousing the multicultural dream of the unionized proletariat. But it was only the sheer impossibility of the frescoes’ removal—not sentimentality—which would leave them untouched by the creditors who’d been trawling the galleries for months.
user-inactivated:
Ech, it's bad business. Bankruptcy is something the city needs, but it's going to fuck over so many people. Can't turn back the clock to stop yourself from being incompetent, though.