Portraits of slaves caring for vegetable crops, a letter from Haitian liberation leader Toussaint L’Ouverture, a book by a real-life veteran of the famed 54th Massachusetts Regiment immortalized in the 1989 film Glory, a rare painting by George Washington Carver and on-set photos from the Lincoln Motion Picture Company are just a sampling of the treasures Nathaniel Montague collected for over 50 years.
Wanting to properly archive his collection chronicling African-American history and culture, Montague took out a loan from New York-based ABKCO Music and Records, an independent entertainment company that holds the rights to music by Sam Cooke, Bobby Womack and The Rolling Stones. It’s the same company The Beatles’s George Harrison battled with in the 1970s over a song’s copyright; plus in 2008, ABKCO sued Lil Wayne over his song “Playing with Fire” on Tha Carter III, claiming it was derived from “Play with Fire” by The Rolling Stones.
ABKCO is (perhaps rightfully) litigious; this made the situation dire when Montague, like so many other Americans over the last few years, fell on hard times, and was forced to declare bankruptcy. Consequentially, his prized collection of rare African-American artifacts was seized last year by Montague’s creditor, with ABKCO winning a judgment for $325,000 plus fees against the amateur historian.
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To settle the debt, ABKCO advocates selling the collection off piece by piece, but did agree to give the trusteeship in control of the pieces six months to prevent that by paying Montague’s judgement, with final bids for the collection due July 13. If no acceptable terms are presented, ABKCO plans to petition the court during a scheduled July 20 hearing to begin selling off the Montague African American Collection Catalogue, returning whatever remains to Montague.
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article courtesy of TheGrio.com
