The story of why Detroit can't pay its bills is long, complicated, and not flattering to white people. But what this has to do with the world class art collection at the Detroit Institute of Arts is beyond me. Some people have suggested that it is a horrible miscarriage of justice if they have to sell some art http://www.freep.com/article/20130523/NEWS01/305230154.
I couldn't give two shits if Detroit has a world class art collectionhttp://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/08/detroit-is-having-its-art-collection-appraised.html. The set of people who both a. give two shits and b. have actually been to Detroit is probably vainishingly small. What I do care about are the people of Detroit and especially the people who worked for the city and who are relying on their public pension. Those people must get paid.
If the choice is between art and retired city workers, sell the fucking art! Now, if you want to claim that other sources of money exist, well that's a valid argument. But being poor and having access to great art is not better than being comfortably shelter and fed while not having such access. It is much, much worse.
-- Thornton