Berkshire Eagle Seeks to Unseal Art Sale Documents

The Berkshire Eagle reported on Monday, November 27, that their publisher, New England Newspapers, Inc., has asked the Massachusetts Appeals Court to unseal the documents in the Berkshire Museum art sale case, including their contract with Sotheby’s.

“The public has a longstanding common law and First Amendment right of access to judicial documents filed in civil cases,” attorney Jeffrey J. Pyle of the Boston firm Prince Lobel Tye LLP writes in a motion on the newspaper’s behalf.

Unsealing the documents in question, Pyle writes, will allow museum “stakeholders” to better understand the decision trustees took when they announced July 12 they would sell 40 works of art, including two paintings by Norman Rockwell, to stabilize their finances and help fund a renovation project. The sales were expected to raise as much as $60 million.

“It will, in short, help the public determine for itself whether or not the Board of Trustees made ‘thoughtful decisions to steer its charity through troubled times,’ as the Superior Court opined,” Pyle writes, “or instead made a grave and costly mistake.” ~The Eagle asks Appeals Court to unseal documents in Berkshire Museum litigation

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