Dispute cancels sale of
books on Hawaiiana

The Honolulu Academy of Arts canceled the sale of a collection of rare and out-of-print books on Hawaiiana yesterday because of a dispute over the donor's estate.

The sale had been scheduled for next weekend at the academy's Art Center at the old Linekona School, and was to have been a fund-raiser for the academy's Robert Allerton Library.

"Because of a misunderstanding regarding the final disposition of the Patches Damon Holt estate, the academy will cancel this event," said academy Director Stephen Little. "Our intent is to respect the process of the resolution of the estate."

The collection was willed to the academy by Holt and came from the library she and her husband, the late writer and publisher John Dominis Holt, had at their Honolulu home.

The academy also received most of the couple's art collection, Little said.

However, the academy was one of several heirs of the estate, which is still to be settled. Francis Damon "Patches" Holt, descendant of a missionary family, died Jan. 8, 2003, at age 84.

Although the book collection was not included on a list of items contested by the other heirs, a decision was made to wait until the entire estate is settled in court, Little said.

The collection of 1,500 to 2,000 books includes volumes dating back to the late 1800s and hundreds of scarce and out-of-print pamphlets.

It also includes about 100 rare hand-colored lithographs of Hawaiian flowers and birds from incomplete books that were part of the collection. The prints were made in London in the late 1800s.

The sale was expected to draw hundreds of Hawaiiana enthusiasts.