Absolutely Not.

It was announced today that Thomas Jefferson University has agreed to sell Eakin's masterwork, "The Gross Clinic," for $68M to a Wal-Mart heiress who plans to move it to Bentonville, Arkansas.

This on the day that that hag writes that load of nonsense. Like a punch in the gut.

She must eat at Geno's.

As quoted by the NYTimes:

Anne d’Harnoncourt, director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, said she would immediately explore the possibility, perhaps in tandem with the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. “It’s a painting that really belongs in Philadelphia — his presence still resonates here,” she said of Eakins’s masterwork. “There may be a way we could band together to make it happen.”

After all, the Art Museum is on Eakin's Oval.

I say screw the underground gallery. We've got Gehry signed up already. Give him the waterfront. Let him build a brilliant anchor that will shine along the Delaware.

John Street wants to create a legacy, this would be it. Manage to pull this off and it sure would be harder to remember him for the bug.

Dougherty's got $83M sitting in his slush fund. Maybe if he sold a few properties instead of giving them away pay off political favors...

There's that surplus. Create that "rainy day fund." The value of the work is bound to appreciate.

Philadelphia Against Santorum needs something to do. You raised $150K in a year. And that was just to beat some schmo named Santorum. You think we could get that in time to add that to whatever the Art Museum, PAFA and the City can come up with to pay of Jeff? Are you up for it? Because it's doable. We can get this done.

It's like the Dream Garden by Maxfield Parish, the Tiffany's glass mosaic that Steve Wynn tried to buy out of the lobby of the Curtis Publishing Building a couple years back.

We rallied to save the Love statue. We can rally to save Eakins.

This is our cultural heritage. We cannot let it be bought.

If we sell it, we are selling are Philadelphia's future. Would we allow the Liberty Bell to be bought? Would we allow some Wal-Mart heiress to ship the Liberty Bell to Bentonville, Arkansas? This is no different.

Philadelphia is the home of the first hospital, founded by no less than Ben Franklin and is now one of the pre-eminent centers of medicine in the U.S., if not the world. That rich medical tradition that is captured by this painting. We have a rich history of medicine that will be plundered by the sale of this art.

We buy this and we would be investing in our city's cultural capital.

It in a Gehry museum somewhere along the waterfront sure would be a decent alternative to the casinos on the waterfront.