Meeting Obligations Cut By Cut

A cut here, a cut there, and the victim is soon bleeding to death. Slowly, painfully, in a scene reminiscent of the Eighteenth Century, when the ill were bled to improve their health...the Field Museum is in decline and bleeding out its treasures.

Some time back, when the boom was booming and money seemed to be growing on trees, the Museum directors thought it was the right time to expand the museum. Build it and they will come, or so it was thought.

As it turns out, the people did not come.

The economy turned down and the price of admission for a day's entertainment was unreachable. The tourists couldn't afford to travel to Chicago to visit the museum. The locals were pinching pennies.

The debt on the loan still had to be paid. The creditors had to be made whole.

Where does anyone get money when they have debt obligations and there's not enough income?

The Field Museum has been selling its assets, its treasures. What might once have been put on exhibit for the edification of museum-goers has gone elsewhere, and it won't be coming back.

The last remaining George Catlin paintings of Natives Americans were sold off to meet salary obligations. It is believed that private collectors are enjoying them now in their private abodes, far from the eyes of the general public.

Even the millions of dollars brought in from that auction are not enough to keep the museum solvent. That is how deep in debt it is, and how very wrong the board members were when they crunched the numbers and came up with a figure they thought was manageable.

There are rumblings about selling a rare book collection that might fetch $50 million.

Unlike the artifacts, the books are not critical to conducting scholarly research. Everyone Googles these days, don't they? As long as Google has a chance to scan those books before they go out the door. Private collectors generally don't make their valuable holdings available to anyone who wants to conduct a little research.

What is left of a museum if it has sold off its most valuable items to pay for a loan that has turned into a life-threatening illness?

Like the patients of old, the Field Museum could kill itself through a self-inflicted hemorrhage that was intended to cure. The unintended consequences may prove fatal.