Art collector and philanthropist Agnes Gund confirmed reports Monday that she’d sold “Masterpiece,” a 1962 painting by Roy Lichtenstein for $150 million in January, and donated $100 million of the revenue to kick start a criminal justice reform fund.
Gund, 78, sold the piece specifically to start the Art for Justice Fund (A4JF), which is devoted to reducing mass incarceration in the United States, The New York Times reported. The A4JF is a five-year fund to which art collectors can donate to support criminal justice reform.
“In the U.S. today, one in three black men will spend time in jail. For Latinos, it’s one in six. For white males, it’s one in 17,” the A4JF website reads. “With five percent of the world’s population, we house 25 percent of the world’s prisoners.”
Gund told The NYT she had long had a passion for justice reform, particularly because six of her 12 grandchildren are black and the shootings like that of Trayvon Martin, worried her. She also said she was greatly affected by Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.”
“The Art for Justice Fund (A4JF) will support innovative advocacy and interventions aimed at safely cutting the prison population in states with the highest rates of incarceration, and strengthening the education and employment options for people leaving prison,” the website said.
Darren Walker, the president of the Ford Foundation, which administers A4JF, told the Times she had long been considering selling her possessions to influence reform.
“She said, ‘I really want to do something to help here,'” Walker said. “‘What if I sold one of my jewels and we used the proceeds to make grants to organizations working on mass incarceration?'”
Gund said she hopes other art collectors will donate an additional $100 million to the fund within the next five years.
“This is one thing I can do before I die,” said in an interview. “This is what I need to do.”
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