Howdy!
I don't know if the deal was approved, or not (somehow I think it was). But according to the agenda for last night's Saskatoon city council meeting, Douglas Bentham is $150,000 richer, Hans Holtkamp is $90,000 richer and Floyd Wanner is $28,760 richer. Congrats to them all.
What I don't quite understand is the sculptures by Mr. Bentham and Mr. Wanner were appraised at $212,500 and $30,000 respectively, yet the city of Saskatoon only paid $150,000 and $28,760 respectively. If I were the Saskatoon city council, I wouldn't hire that appraiser anymore. Then, according to the agenda the two sculptures had been leased, wouldn't the price the city paid reflect the leasing arangement? Last I heard, rental (or leasing) of art was somewhere around 3%/month of the value of the art. Mr. Bentham's piece had been leased for 24 months, and Mr. Wanner's for 96 months. Weird, eh?
And then if I furrow my brow slightly more, it does seem to me that the city of Saskatoon is getting the Cultural Cities program to pay for art that they already have. Now I do not know if this is allowed within the framework of the Cultural Cities program, but every gosh darn grant application that I've seen has made it explicitly clear that you can not apply retroactively for art already created.
If you are interested in reading the bureaucratic paperwork, pages 67 and 117 are where things start in the minutes.
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