SANTA FE, NM.- Saul Cohen, President of the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, and Raymond Krueger, Chairman of the Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation, announced today that their boards have signed a letter of intent that establishes the principles under which the Foundation would transfer all of its assets to the Museum. The Foundation's collection of more than 1,000 O'Keeffe artworks and extensive archival materials would be conveyed to the Museum, as would O'Keeffe's house and studio in Abiquiu, New Mexico.

Upon completion of the transaction, the Museum's art and archival collections will increase dramatically, and the Museum will become the steward of O'Keeffe's historic house in Abiquiu. The Museum already owns and maintains the artist's Ghost Ranch property, 20 minutes north of Abiquiu.

"This is a landmark event for the Museum and its mission to preserve the legacy of Georgia O'Keeffe," said Cohen. "We are profoundly grateful to the directors of the Foundation for the confidence and faith they have shown in the Museum."

"We have been extremely impressed with the success and vision of the Museum in the short time since its establishment, in 1997," said Krueger, who is a grandnephew of O'Keeffe. "We are pleased to have the opportunity to house so many of O'Keeffe's works of art in a single institution dedicated to her legacy, and I have enjoyed working with Lee Dirks, former President of the Museum, to bring this about."

Other members of the Board of the Foundation are Juan Hamilton, O'Keeffe's friend and associate from 1973 until her death in 1986; Earl A. Powell III, Director of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Anne D'Harnoncourt, CEO of the Philadelphia Museum of Art; and June O'Keeffe Sebring, niece of the artist and community volunteer. Agapita Lopez of Abiquiu is Executive Director of the Foundation, which was created with the understanding that it would complete the distribution of its assets on the twentieth anniversary of O'Keeffe's death.

"This agreement firmly establishes the Museum as the single most important repository of O'Keeffe's work," said George G. King, Director of the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. "It will assist us immeasurably in fulfilling our mission of perpetuating, conserving, and interpreting her artistic legacy. We look forward to making these works available to the growing numbers of people who have come to admire her so much."

"I am thrilled that the collection of the Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation is to be transferred to the Museum," said Barbara Buhler Lynes, Curator of the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum and Emily Fisher Landau Director of the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Research Center. "We will not only exhibit this new collection, but we can also make it and the archival materials available to the scholarly community. The Museum, its Research Center, and the O'Keeffe houses form a wonderful and important complex that greatly enhances our ability to acquaint visitors with O'Keeffe's place and significance in the history of American art."

The Foundation and the Museum expect to complete the transfer of the Foundation's assets by early 2006.