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If you decide that you do want to sell some or all of the assets there are still, as Table A2 indicates, various legal
protections that may prevent you from selling.
Table A2: Potential protections that may be in place to prevent asset sales
Potential protection
Details
Independent municipal
corporation
Restriction on collections given
to cities
Deed restrictions on assets gifted
to a city
Restrictive covenants on land
sold to a city for use as an asset
The collections that are part of anything that is structured as an independent municipal
corporation are protected. A city may own the building but not the collections. Detroit’s
public library collections fall into this category. Similarly, Minneapolis has its Park and
Recreation Board, an independently elected, semi-autonomous body set up as a distinct
entity to maintain and develop parks and protect them from the city council, mayor, and
developers.
Detroit Institute of Arts was privately founded in the 1880s, but the building, collection and
endowment were given by cash-strapped founders to the city “in trust for the public." The
Michigan attorney general has stated that the art in the DIA cannot be sold, although some
lawyers have questioned whether a bankruptcy court will agree. If there ever were a sale,
the public sector would probably have claim to some of the proceeds as a good deal of city,
state, and metro-area funding has been sunk into the Institute.
There may be deed restrictions on assets gifted to a city. For example, Eliza Howell Park in
Detroit was deeded to the city of Detroit with the explicit caveat that it be maintained as a
park. This can also be the case with individual art works.
The land may have been sold to the city with a restrictive covenant that stipulated that the
land only be used for municipal purposes. For example, Exxon Mobil sold land to the city
of St. Paul for $1.00 with a restricted covenant requiring that the land (soon to be opened as
Victoria Park) remain parkland in perpetuity.
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