Alice Walton Buying Art for Wal-Mart
By Bernice Hurst, Managing Director, Fine Food Network
Alice Walton, Sam's daughter and the second wealthiest woman in the world, is currently building her collection of fine art. According to a report in The Independent in the UK, Ms. Walton plans to put the paintings on show in Bentonville, transforming the town into a tourist destination. Hopes are that the collection will benefit the local economy by bringing in visitors' dollars and gathering together masterpieces formerly dotted around the country under one roof for the pleasure of as many people as can make the trip. Estimated to cost more than $50 million, the museum is expected to attract a quarter of a million visitors each year.
The Independent says that what it describes as "the U.S. glitterati" are up in arms because Ms. Walton is purchasing - or trying to purchase - well known paintings from such illustrious institutions as the New York Public Library against competition from the likes of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the National Gallery in Washington. She has not always been successful; last year the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts got together to beat her bid for one she was eying at Philadelphia's Thomas Jefferson University. Now Ms. Walton is allegedly fighting with Fisk University in Nashville over her attempt to buy part of the collection bequeathed to them by the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe.
Others see Ms. Walton's project as philanthropic, bringing together a range of masterpieces under one roof and making them available to a greater number of fans rather than hiding them away for their private pleasure as other wealthy collectors have done in the past. At the moment, the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art is expected to open some time in 2010. Perhaps its theme should be accessibility.
Discussion Questions: Are there any ethical issues here? Do you see the establishment of an art museum to be in keeping with Wal-Mart's desired image?
[Author's commentary] Of course it's all a matter of opinion and others would say that no one has a right to tell anyone else how to spend their money. But when you're talking about the descendants of Sam Walton, who created his business with the express intention of providing low cost products for those with limited spending power, then perhaps questions are somewhat more justifiable.