Feavel continues to make public appearances to speak of his whistle-blowing case. He's featured on a Web site devoted to museum security, and he says he's been contacted by the FBI, which is looking into the museum audit.
There is a broader implication to this story that goes beyond Tim Feavel and Marilyn Zeitlin to the heart of an ongoing feud between state lawmakers and state universities. The $275,000 that was "misspent" by the art museum was deposited into the ASU Foundation account rather than a state-controlled account. That meant the foundation, not the state, got the handling fees for the money, generally a small (3 or 4) percentage. Also, rules for using foundation money differ from rules for state funds; for example, the purchases of flowers and alcohol wouldn't have been allowed with state funds.
Aside from one check for $22,000 from a federal source, apparently any of the money in question could have been deposited with the foundation. The problem is that the checks were made out to the ASU Art Museum, not the ASU Foundation.
Why were dozens of inappropriately madeout checks deposited into the foundation's account? Foundation director Lonnie Ostrom did not return calls seeking an answer.
Allan Price, an ASU vice president, says, "The fact is that money was for the use of the art museum and was used by the art museum. . . . It was really more of a technical matter of what account it was deposited in."
But the perception was potentially devastating, given that the university is in the midst of a $300 million fund-raising campaign. And apparently the museum was not the only university department depositing money into the wrong accounts.
College of Fine Arts Dean Robert Wills says, "Evidently, when Russ Nelson was president [1981-89], there was a kinda university policy that gift money would be deposited with the foundation. So as a general rule, gift money has been deposited with the foundation. Not only museum, but other units as well.
"Now with all the attention focused on the museum, the university's looking at that pretty seriously, in terms of trying to decide what the best way to handle it is and how donor intent plays into the whole issue of where funds ought to be deposited. And I think it's safe to say that there'll be some changes there."
Ted Decker, president of the art museum's advisory board, says his board is extremely supportive of Zeitlin. He worried initially that the audit would thwart fund-raising attempts, but says it hasn't.
"We're moving ahead because we feel very confident that nothing has been done that's illegal or even that there have been misuse issues," Decker says.
Zeitlin is now curating the museum's next major show, Contemporary Art From Cuba: Irony and Survival on the Utopian Island, which opens September 26 and will travel nationally.
On a bright day early this month--over a lunch of escargot and mussels and chocolate mousse--Stephane Janssen talks about his friend Marilyn Zeitlin.
Janssen added it up recently, and concludes he's donated $905,000 worth of art to the ASU museum since Zeitlin came to town.
He scoffs at the charges in the audit. "Of course you don't make an opening where you give only flat water with no ice!" he exclaims, over the silly notion that Zeitlin is guilty of spending museum money on champagne. "I mean, people come if you give them a little bit.
". . . I was devastated when I learned she could not go back to her office and she was in danger of criminal charges."
Word has just gotten out that Zeitlin can return to her job later in the week, and Janssen is delighted. He was horrified at the thought she wouldn't be allowed back. After all, his most recent gift was one of the largest he's ever made, and it had a lot to do with Zeitlin. She'd promised him she was in the Valley to stay.
Once she's totally cleared, Janssen muses, he thinks he'll make a gift of a piece of artwork--maybe a $70,000 bronze by the late Robert Arneson--to the museum as a show of his support for Zeitlin.
Kind of like sending flowers.
Contact Amy Silverman at her online address: asilverman@newtimes.com
