Preserving art is important; preserving art collections isn’t. If anybody proposes burning the canvases in the Detroit museum to stay warm in the winter, we’re against it. But if it’s about selling works of art to make the tradeoff between pension cuts and city services less horrible, we wouldn’t rule it out. Some will object that sales of works from the museum risk important art works falling into private hands where scholars and the public can’t see them. That would be sad, but most private art collections move back to museums over time. The museum world views sales like this on par with the Visigoths’ sack of Rome, but unless the world’s art museums are prepared to raise the money to help Detroit’s retirees and citizens, we don’t see why their views should be given much weight.

Losing precious art works will be a blow to Detroit’s pride, but that’s what bankruptcy does: it humbles your pride.