Ford House discloses 2013 sale of Paul Cezanne painting to private buyer for $100 million

GROSSE POINTE SHORES, Mich. – The Edsel & Eleanor Ford House has sold an oil painting by French post-impressionist artist Paul Cezanne to a private buyer for $100 million.

The Detroit Free Press reports (http://on.freep.com/1CaRTTa ) Friday that the 2013 sale appears on the non-profit institution’s 2013 tax form and removes from the 1929 Grosse Pointe Shores mansion a painting that had been in the Ford family since the mid-20th century.

Ford House president Kathleen Mullins confirmed to the newspaper the sale of “La Montagne Sainte-Victoire vue du bosquet du Château Noir,” which was painted around 1904. It depicts a mountain in southern France. The buyer’s name was not released.

Mullins says Ford House officials didn’t release news of the sale when it occurred for fear of causing problems for the Detroit Institute of Arts, which was the focus of debate over whether city-owned pieces of its collection should be sold as part of Detroit’s bankruptcy.

An $800 million promise from foundations, major corporations and the state to helped protect the DIA’s art from possible sale.

The Ford House, which is on solid financial footing and carries no debt, is using proceeds from the sale to create a special endowment for preservation, conservation and restoration. It includes the 87-acre estate of auto industry pioneer Henry Ford’s only son on the shores of Lake St. Clair as well as furnishings and objects inside the mansion.

The Ford House, which draws about 60,000 visitors a year for tours and events, has a separate operating endowment of $86 million.

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Information from: Detroit Free Press, http://www.freep.com