Laurentian University agrees to authorize the GAS stay rent-free on the premises of Manoir Bell — owned by Laurentian University — for up to 90 days after the Jonction Est center is completed (New window) or by May 30, 2025 if construction of the new building is not completed by then.
Later, Laurentian University will be free to sell the Manoir Bell
we can read in the agreement.
The East Junction center, which will eventually house the GAS as well as the central branch of the Greater Sudbury Public Library, is one of the major infrastructure projects that the City of Greater Sudbury wants to undertake. The latter still plans an opening in 2024, even though construction has yet to begin.
O GAS will still have to continue to pay the maintenance costs of Bell Manor while occupying the building constructed in 1908.
Many works could be sold
However, Laurentian University does not rule out the possibility of selling works from the Laurentian University Arts Center and Museum (CAMUL) collection.
These collections include more than 1,400 works that Laurentian University purchased or received as a gift and whose management was entrusted to the GAS in 1997.
Some of these works were produced by painters associated with the Group of Seven (Tom Thomson, Frederick H. Varley, AY Jackson, Arthur Lismer and JEH MacDonald) and renowned Aboriginal artists such as Carl Beam and Norval Morrisseau.
Under the agreement, the GAS must officially acknowledge that he is not the owner of the works in this collection.
The University confirm that you do not intend […] sell the works in the collection before implementing a plan in agreement with the creditors
we can read in the document.
A creditor agreement plan is a strategy that must be developed by any organization that ACCA to settle your debts with your creditors.
Laurentian University, safe from creditors until at least September 30, is still working on its plan but has not said when it will be ready.
However, the works in the collection can be sold at a later date.
” After implementing the plan, [l’Université] Laurentian agrees to give 90 days notice to the GAS inform you of its intention to sell the works of art managed or displayed in the GAS. »
Some of the works in the collection CAMUL were donated to Laurentian University with specific restrictions, which the institution must continue to follow under the agreement with the GAS.
Great concern in the arts community
Since the onset of the Laurentian financial crisis, the collection’s fate CAMUL worry her GAS as well as stakeholders in the Sudbury arts sector, who fear the University will sell them off to pay off its heavy debt.
Last April, the three children of the late painter Frederick Hagan, whose more than 250 works are part of the collection managed by the GAShe even wrote to the Ontario government, as well as the leaders of Laurentian University, asking that this scenario be discarded.
the fears of GAS of losing the collection rose even further last February, after what the gallery called aa misunderstanding
on your part in relation to the Business Creditors Agreement Act (CCAA).
Like all creditors of an organization claiming ACCAThe GAS submitted proof of claims.
It included the monetary value of the art collection – approximately $5 million – as well as the monetary value of Bell Manor that houses the gallery – $1.3 million.
After consulting a lawyer and acknowledging that she should never have taken that step, the GAS he had to face Laurentian University and the firm Ernst & Young, which oversees the restructuring of the institution, in court in order to withdraw his claim for damages.
The hearing, postponed several times, will never take place due to this new agreement between the GAS and Laurentian University endorsed on June 17 by the President of the Superior Court of Justice, Geoffrey Morawetz.
Contacted Tuesday by Radio-Canada, the director general of GASDemetra Christakos, declined our interview request, noting thatthere was always a document to sign
for the agreement to be formalized.
The Gallery is finalizing a statement that it will make public in the coming days.
she wrote.
Laurentian University did not immediately respond to our questions.