A mercurial dispute is underway in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, concerning Price Tower—Frank Lloyd Wright’s only built skyscraper completed in 1956. Price Tower’s current owners—Cynthia and Anthem Blanchard of Copper Tree, Green Copper Holdings, and others—stand accused by the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy of selling original furniture and artifacts from inside the building to a midcentury design collector in Dallas.
This is in clear violation of preservation bylaws: Price Tower’s bespoke ephemera, which includes gifts from Bruce Goff, is protected through a 2011 easement with the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy. But the controversy doesn’t stop there.
On September 1, commercial tenants at Price Tower will be barred from entering the building, as reported by The Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise. The Blanchards have opted to evict all their tenants while they clandestinely seek a new buyer for the property. The staffers who maintain Price Tower were laid off this month. And the public is no longer allowed inside Price Tower’s museum, The Price Tower Arts Center, or The Inn at Price Tower, a swanky hotel.
Technical Foul?
The firings, legal disputes, and closure come after Price Tower was purchased by Copper Tree in 2023 for $10. Controversy has swirled around the lauded skyscraper by Frank Lloyd Wright ever since. Today, Price Tower is more than $2 million in debt. It was put up for auction on August 21 after years of financial difficulty.
To get out of the red, Cynthia and Anthem Blanchard allegedly began selling artifacts inside Price Tower. The Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise reported that “a rolling directory board, architectural copper relief panels, an armchair, and copper tables and stools” are among the items in question, as well as items designed by Bruce Goff.
Cynthia and Anthem Blanchard had no right to sell off Price Tower’s goods, members of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy have argued. The Conservancy has since engaged lawyers to help repatriate the items. It sent the Blanchards a letter with language pertaining to legal action last July about returning the goods from the Dallas collector.
“This collection of items cannot be sold,” said Barbara Gordon, executive director of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy. “A preservation easement including the building and items in the collection was donated to the Conservancy in 2011 and is recorded with the property deed.”
Gordon continued: “The owners have no right to sell protected items without our approval. This practice is not a sustainable way to fund the tower’s operations. It’s killing the goose that laid the golden egg! Once sold, items lose their direct connection to the tower and are no longer available for visitors and Bartlesville residents to appreciate.”
This article was updated on August 21 to note that Price Tower is now up for auction by its owners.
