The remedy was art, and their collection flourished.
Now, as Page’s unparalleled post-football path continues in Minnesota in the intersecting spaces of educational opportunity and racial justice, two of the couple’s most prized pieces are on the market. Diane Sims Page died in 2018, and her surviving husband and children decided the time was right.
The drawings of Jean-Michel Basquiat “The Athlete” and “Starvation” will be included among the 400-some items in next month’s 20th century and contemporary art sale at the Phillips Auction House in New York. They’re each valued at more than $200,000.
“It’s truly been an honor to actually learn more about Justice Page and his work. It really speaks to their foresight,” said John McCord, who is directing the sale for Phillips.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) Alan Page was married in 1973, midway through a Hall of Fame career with the Minnesota Vikings, and he and his wife soon went to work on covering the bare walls in the new home they had built.
2021/05/06 07:54 File-In this Jan. 11, 2018 file photo, Alan Page, NFL Hall of Famer and retired Minnesota Supreme Court justice, talks about a poster from the 1972 Ol. File-In this Jan. 11, 2018 file photo, Alan Page, NFL Hall of Famer and retired Minnesota Supreme Court justice, talks about a poster from the 1972 Olympics in Munich that was done by an African-American artist, which is among the artifacts of slavery and segregation collected by Page and his wife, Diane Sims Page. Page has counted art collection among his many life pursuits, and the former Vikings star has two of his prized pieces up for sale through a New York auction house, each valued at more than $200,000. (AP Photo/Steve Karnowski, File)