Fisk University said Thursday it will appeal a judge's order to display an art collection donated to it by painter Georgia O'Keeffe.

The school said in a news release that the order threatens the safekeeping of the collection.

In March, Nashville Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle permanently banned any sale of the 101-piece collection and set an October deadline for Fisk to retrieve the artwork from storage and put it on display.

The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in New Mexico had sued to gain the rights over the collection because of the school's attempts to sell paintings and because they weren't currently on display. The Santa Fe museum is the legal representative of the late artist's estate.

The March ruling said Fisk broke the terms of the donation but shouldn't lose the art collection to the museum.

In February, the judge rejected a $30 million arrangement to share the collection with the Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, Ark. The museum was founded by Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton.

O'Keeffe donated the art to the historically black university in 1949, a time when segregation prevented Southern blacks from visiting many museums.

The collection of art belonged to O'Keeffe's husband, photographer and art promoter Alfred Stieglitz, and experts estimate its worth at $100 million. It includes pieces by O'Keeffe, Picasso, Renoir, Cezanne, Marsden Hartley, Alfred Maurer and Charles Demuth.

Fisk put the art into storage in 2005 because the gallery where it was exhibited was falling apart, and there were fears the works would be damaged.

Fisk's statement on Thursday said, ''In short, the court's order (in March) results in the inevitable deterioration of the collection. Prudence requires that we appeal the court's order to maintain the art in a manner consistent with contemporary conservation methods.''

Source: Associated Press