Rockefeller Yu will sell two paintings for about $32 million

The Rockefeller University in New York plans to sell two paintings by abstract expressionist Joan Mitchell to help fund biomedical research. New York Times reported.

“Untitled” and “City Landscape” are expected to sell for $32 million when Christie’s auctions them later this month.

This was announced by the President of Rockefeller University, Richard Lifton. Time that the institution, which was founded by the industrialist of the same name in 1901 as the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, aims to support more research into artificial intelligence and neurodegeneration, among other things.

“Science is very expensive,” Lifton said, and that price is made even more expensive by the rising cost of advanced technology. “I’m not an art connoisseur, but it has not escaped our attention that the value of Joan Mitchell’s paintings has risen sharply in recent years.”

The paintings, acquired by the institution in the 1950s, have not been seen off campus since. For many years, one hung in the President’s home and the other in the cafeteria of the laboratory building.

“We are not a museum,” Lifton told reporters. Time. “We understand that it might not be a good idea to keep such valuable works.”

Its endowment is valued at $2.5 billion, according to the Rockefeller University Foundation. latest tax returnsand recently completed a five-year fundraising campaign that brought in $777 million. New York Times reported.